Former LSU basketball player and athletic director Joe Dean dies at 83

BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU officials say former Tigers basketball player and longtime athletic director Joe Dean has died at the age of 83.

Dean, who died on Sunday in Baton Rouge, is one of only three LSU players who've been inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, along with Bob Pettit and Pete Maravich.

He was the athletic director at LSU for 14 years, beginning in 1987. During that period he oversaw $50 million in facility improvements, and LSU teams won 27 national championships, along with 40 Southeastern Conference titles.

Dean also worked as a marketing executive with Converse and as an analyst on college basketball broadcasts, during which he became known for using the phrase "string music" to describe the sound of a basketball swishing through the net.