re: In hindsight, was signing Ben Simmons the downfall of CJJ?

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I mean in the sense that it brought more eyes and attention on how woefully under coached his teams were, sure.

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This.

Simmons had a monster year at LSU and carried an otherwise rudderless ship under Jones. The defensive issues were there from day one. It's just that Mickey masked a lot of it for two years with his shot blocking. He had a million blocked shots because LSU's lack of perimeter defense let EVERYONE get to the rim. Pre-Simmons the offense was inefficient. Post-Simmons it was worse.

This year was the perfect storm for Jones to fail. He didn't have that post-presence he always had who could create his own scoring opportunities with the half-court offense (or lack there of) broke down. Under almost any other coach in the top 25 Simmons would have be a POY candidate. He averaged 19/12/5 at LSU. That's a combined stat line that is very rare in CBB.

Jones hid in virtual anonymity at LSU with only LSU fans aware of the talent he was wasting. The exposure that Simmons brought to the program brought Jones' shortcomings as a coach out into the light