LSU fires Jones as coach after dismal campaign

LSU director of athletics Joe Alleva announced that men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones was fired after five seasons.

The Tigers completed their worst season in 50 years Wednesday with a 79-52 loss to Mississippi State in a first-round game in the Southeastern Conference tournament. LSU finished 10-21 overall, including 216 in the league.

Jones won at least 19 games and never had a losing record in the SEC in his first four seasons. However, the results began to dip at the end of last season. The Tigers lost six of their final 10 games against SEC teams. Then, Jones decided not to have LSU participate in the NIT.

UMass coach is out: Derek Kellogg was fired as Massachusetts’ coach.

The move comes after the Minutemen finished 15-18 this season. The team was 155-137 overall in nine seasons under Kellogg and just 67-83 in Atlantic 10 play.

In the draft: Washington freshman guard Markelle Fultz has declared for the NBA draft, where he is expected to be among the top five picks.

Fultz made the expected decision, ending a rocky season with the Huskies in which he led the Pac-12 Conference in scoring but missed six games because of a knee injury. He watched his team finish 2-16 in conference play.

Fultz averaged 23.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game.