Florida State associate head coach Stan Jones was a part of the inaugural class inducted into the Step Up Assistant Coaches Hall of Fame in Atlanta last week.
The longtime FSU men's basketball assistant, who was honored along with 10 other coaches, helped Leonard Hamilton build winning programs at both Florida State and Miami.
In recognition of his Hall of Fame selection, Warchant's Corey Clark and Ira Schoffel sat down with Jones for a wide-ranging interview about his career, his coaching philosophy and a variety of other topics.
Jones said he learned he was going to be part of the inaugural class right after a practice during the 2018-2019 season.
He had no idea Step Up, an organization that focuses on professional development for coaches, was even starting a Hall of Fame, much less that he would be deemed worthy of being in the inaugural class.
"I was taken aback, like, 'Is this for real? Where is the catch here? Do I have to do something to get this?'" Jones said with a laugh. "But I've got to give the Step Up company (credit). They really made the event a very meaningful and special time. They didn't treat it as just a little nice thing to get some media publicity and some clicks and likes on social media.
"This is something they genuinely want to have for basketball at all levels."
Jones was one of 11 members of the inaugural class, and he was inducted with seven other Division I coaches: Gonzaga’s Donny Daniels, Connecticut’s Chris Dailey, former Tennessee assistant Mickie DeMoss, North Carolina’s Steve Robinson, Notre Dame’s Carol Owens, Michigan State’s Dwayne Stephens and Stanford’s Amy Tucker.
"There were some great names there," Jones said.
During the 55-minute interview with Warchant, Jones touched on a variety of other topics as well.
He talked about his goal to one day be a head coach -- if the fit is right.
He talked about the hardest players he's ever had to prepare for: A guy named Zion comes up.
He talked about how Hamilton always preaches accountability and isn't afraid to let his coaches coach. Or, you know, have principles.
"I facetiously say to people all the time, I try to be the best of the good guys in our business," Jones said. "There's less competition."
He talked about how Hamilton discovered him while he was a head coach at a high school in Mississippi and forever changed his life. And he also talked about how far the FSU team could have gone in 2019 if it had its full roster:
"Well, you've got to play the cards that are dealt to you," Jones said. "Until I go to my grave, I really will believe this, that this team, if Phil doesn't have the broken bone in his foot -- because he was having a phenomenal preseason and offseason last year -- if Trent Forrest is healthy the whole year, if David Nichols doesn't get hurt in the first game of the NCAA Tournament, that this team would have been a Final Four team and probably could have been playing on that last night.
"For a couple of reasons: All the parts on the team fit and they also played the right way. This group of guys really wanted to win."
Here is the entire interview for your listening enjoyment:
