225 Article on AD Joe Alleva's past and present

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"I have a philosophy that I like to hire good people and let them do good jobs," he says. "My job is to help them do their jobs. So whether it's the football coach, or whether it's the volleyball coach, if they need something—come and see me, and I'll try to help you. Most of my conversations with [LSU head football Coach] Les [Miles] are, What can I do to help you?' That's most of my conversations with most of my coaches."

Alleva has hired a handful of coaches at LSU, most notably women's basketball Coach Nikki Caldwell, men's basketball coaches Trent Johnson and Johnny Jones, and a few Olympic sports coaches. How he does it is worth noting.

"Of course I like to get recommendations and things like that, but hiring a coach, at the end of the day, one of the main criteria I look at is [whether I] would want my kid to play for that person. And if that person came into my house recruiting my kid, could they recruit my kid? Of course you look at experience, and you look at their records, but at the end of the day my gut check is would I want my kid to play for that person."

The word "fit" always comes up when hiring.

"Here you have to have the ability to reach out to the public. Be out there and shake hands and talk to people. I think that's very important. The culture here is very friendly, and you need to be like that."

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