LSU Tigers

As the remaining LSU players trickled into the room for the news conference introducing Johnny Jones as their new head coach, point guard Anthony Hickey was conspicuously absent.

But he arrived just before the news conference started and took a seat at a table with teammates. It's a seat that, much to the relief of Jones and LSU basketball fans, he's willing to keep.

"I'm in here for the long run," he said. "I wasn't really thinking about leaving. It was just rumors, you know, when the coach is leaving."

Those rumors centered around Hickey's desire to be closer to family in his home state of Kentucky. Instead, he referred to the LSU team as "my family here."

With Hickey on board, all seven scholarship players returning from the 18-15 team said they would return to play for Jones. That includes starters Hickey, forward Johnny O'Bryant and wings Andre Stringer and Ralston Turner.

Hickey's return is crucial, given LSU's lack of depth at point guard.

The 5-foot-11 former Kentucky Mr. Basketball made the SEC's All-Freshman team after averaging 8.9 points and a team-high 3.8 assists in 2012. He started 31 of LSU's 33 games and showed defensive prowess, ripping off an SEC-best 2.1 steals a game.

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BATON ROUGE, La. -- Johnny Jones is officially the head man at LSU.

Now, he'd better get to work.

It's no secret that the timing of Trent Johnson's departure put LSU behind the eight ball in the recruiting world. The Tigers didn't have a coach when basketball's national signing day arrived last Wednesday, and he's got a limited window of time to make up for that fact.

Asked about it at his introductory press conference Monday, Jones said he had already gotten started on the recruiting trail. But the real heavy lifting is still to come.

"We've just got to make sure we roll up our sleeves and not look for any situation where we're looking for excuses," Jones said. "We've got to go out there and try to identify some people who haven't been signed yet."

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When LSU hired Johnny Jones as its new basketball coach Friday, it brought reaction from around the program and college basketball online and in social media. Here's a sampling of the reaction:

Johnny O'Bryant, LSU forward (Twitter): Imma finish what I started, not leaving ... Don't believe the rumors...

There has been speculation that O'Bryant, the former McDonald's All American, might leave LSU after his freshman season to test the NBA waters. This tweet was sent out Saturday morning.

Mark Gottfried, North Carolina State (Twitter): So happy for my former asst Johnny Jones who is new coach @LSUbasketball. Phenomenal coach and friend. Could not have made a better hire.

Jones was an assistant coach under Gottfried at Alabama in 2000-01.

Dick Vitale, ESPN color analyst (Twitter): Gr8 hire by LSU in Johnny Jones-will recruit big time players.Personality +

Dicky V. can Twitter shorthand better than most high school girls.

Scott Cross, Head coach at Texas-Arlington (Twitter): So happy for Johnny Jones!!!

UTA, a Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex rival of Jones' North Texas program, won the Southland Conference regular season title in 2012 and Cross' name has come up in some searches at larger programs.

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For some, it was perfect fit.

For others, LSU settled for something less.

Now that Johnny Jones, the Louisiana native and LSU graduate , has the head men's basketball coach position at his alma mater, it's up to him to prove the former true. Because he will be walking into a divided Tiger nation.

As a native Louisianian from the small town of DeRidder who played on the 1981 Final Four team and started his coaching career as a Dale Brown assistant, his supporters say he's the guy to turn around a program that has failed to sustain consistent success since the Shaquille O'Neal days.

To his detractors, he's the guy who was on the LSU staff when the Lester Earl scandal happened (he was cleared of wrongdoing). And he's a mid-major coach with a modestly successful record, a 205-162 worksheet that includes 11 seasons at Sun Belt Conference member North Texas where he managed just one division championship and two NCAA Tournament appearances, neither yielding a win.

For these people, he can't "win" his introductory press conference Monday. Those who thought LSU should have dumped the state treasury at the feet of Shaka Smart or Jamie Dixon won't be swayed by anything Jones has to say when the formal unveiling happens.

But he will have two chances to win over the detractors, all before his first LSU team takes the floor for a game.

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After a meeting with head basketball coach Tubby Smith, Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi told the St. Paul Pioneer Press Friday that he expected Smith to return.

"There have been rumors every year; not certain what ones are true," Maturi told the Pioneer Press in a text message. "I have stated often that I hope and expect Tubby to finish his career here."

Maturi said he spoke to Smith Friday, but did not divulge details of the conversation, the Pioneer Press reported.

Various reports Friday said LSU athletic director Joe Alleva spoke with Smith about the job, presumably Thursday when both me were in the Norfolk, Va. area where the Portsmouth Invitational is ongoing. LSU also interviewed North Texas coach Johnny Jones about the job Tuesday.

This kind of story is nothing new for folks in Minnesota in the Smith era. The former Kentucky, Ge0rgia and Tulsa coach has been a strong candidate for various jobs during his five-year run at Minnesota.

There have been flirtations in recent years with Missouri, Maryland, Virginia, Auburn, and Oregon. That trend continued this season when he was a candidate for both the South Carolina job that eventually went to Kansas State's Frank Martin and at Tulsa, where Smith held his first head coach job. That job eventually went to Kansas assistant coach Danny Manning.

Smith, 60, has been pushing for a contract extension from Minnesota, a request complicated by the pending retirement of Maturi in June. Minnesota wants to wait until Maturi's replacement is identified before dealing with Smith's contract. Smith has also been unhappy with his program's lack of a practice facility. LSU has a new facility that cost just under $14 million to build.

LSU might hesitate based on Smith's advanced age - he'll be 61 by the time the fall semester begins - and recent issues in the Minnesota program. While his 491-209 career record with a national championship in 1998 with Kentucky are impressive, his Gophers teams have missed the NCAA tournament the last two seasons and his teams have gone 12-24 in Big 10 play.

He has also had six players transfer out of his program in the last two years.

Clarence Ceasar couldn't believe what he was hearing Wednesday.

"They've already had outsiders - John Brady and Trent Johnson," he said. "They don't need to be bring Jamie Dixon in here."

Frustration was in the voice of Ceasar, an LSU basketball star from the early 1990s who was a teammate of Shaquille O'Neal. He had just read reports that surfaced Wednesday that Dixon, the Pittsburgh head coach, was being interviewed for the LSU head basketball coach opening (reports that were later refuted).

Ceasar, once a streak-shooting, defensive-minded 6-foot-7 forward and now a high school coach at Washington-Marion High in Lake Charles, La, thought it was nonsense.

"They need to bring Johnny Jones over there if they care about LSU basketball," he said. "They should have done it four years ago."

Ceasar was reacting to the news of a strange day in what has been a strange search. Before it was over, he'd have reason to be less frustrated.

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Todd McShay breaks down the various scenarios for all 32 first-round picks, including LSU's Morris Claiborne and Michael Brockers, projected at No. 5 and No. 25, respectively. Some teams (Colts, Redskins, Bucs) have clear options, while numerous needs and possible trades present a slew of possibilities for others (Browns, Jags, Patriots, Chiefs, Jets, Chargers).