LSU Opts Not To Extend Trent Johnson After 2 Last-Place Finishes

BATON ROUGE – Not so fast.

Apparently, LSU athletic director Joe Alleva’s attempt at securing men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson an additional year on his contract after two straight last place finishes in the Southeastern Conference has rimmed in and out of the basket for now.

The agenda for Friday’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting released last week originally included a one-year extension for Johnson, who went 11-21 and 11-20 the past two seasons with SEC records of 3-13 and 2-14. A revised agenda released by LSU website director Joe Hischer on Monday did not include the Johnson extension.

Asked why on Tuesday, Hischer said, “This has been forwarded to Joe Alleva. He should be responding today.”

Alleva, whose first hire as athletic director in the spring of 2008 was Johnson from the head coaching job at Stanford, did not respond.

Board of Supervisors member and athletic committee chairman Stanley Jacobs was reached Tuesday morning, but he referred questions about the Johnson extension removal to LSU president John Lombardi.

“The contract was originally placed on the agenda as a place holder while we pursued the normal consultative process for such renewals,” Lombardi said Tuesday night. “When it became clear that we could not complete this process in time for the July meeting, we simply postponed consideration. The campus, the president and the Board have made no decisions other than to follow our normal consultative process.”

LSU associate athletic director Herb Vincent said Johnson may still get the one-year extension at a later time.

“Yes, it could be on the agenda for a future board meeting,” he said. “It was an administrative issue. It was pulled back this month because it had not been through the complete administrative process and was sent back to the campus from the system office to complete the review process.”

Johnson, who did not return a phone call Tuesday, has three years remaining on his contract through the 2013-14 season. A one-year extension would make that through the 2014-15 season and is often done at major colleges to keep coaches at four years for recruiting purposes. The one-year extension item on the original agenda did not include a pay raise, and according to the contract, also would not increase the buyout should LSU decide to fire Johnson before his contract expires.

Former women's basketball coach Van Chancellor got a one-year extension a year ago that also did not increase the buyout to fire him.

Johnson makes $1.5 million a year in his current contract. He was hired after the 2007-08 season at Stanford for $1.2 million, but he received a new five-year deal after winning the SEC title in the 2008-09 season. His team finished 27-8 overall and 13-3 in the SEC and advanced into the second round of the NCAA Tournament one year after many of the same players finished 13-18 and 6-10 in the 2007-08 season.

LSU's fortunes could be on the upswing in the 2011-12 season as Johnson signed the most heavily decorated prospect in his three years as coach last November.

Johnny O'Bryant, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound power forward from Cleveland, Miss., is a McDonald's All-American who was ranked No. 6 in the nation at his position by ESPNU. Johnson also signed point guard Anthony Hickey, the reigning Mr. Basketball of Kentucky out of Hopkinsville.

In addition, 6-11 center Justin Hamilton becomes eligible this season after transferring from Iowa State. His play was impressive last month as LSU played well in a tour of Italy and should bolster LSU's troubled inside game as will O'Bryant.