According to reporting from The Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, Southern University is expected to hire Tulane assistant coach Kevin Johnson as its next head men’s basketball coach, replacing Sean Woods, who was let go last week.
Johnson has over 28 years of coaching experience and has spent the last four seasons as an assistant on Ron Hunter’s coaching staff.
Before joining Tulane, Johnson was an assistant at Louisiana-Lafayette under head coach Bob Marlin. There, he helped the program win 174 games, a 2014 NCAA Tournament appearance and a regular season Sun Belt title and NIT berth in 2018.
During his time at UL Lafayette, Coach Johnson recruited, signed, and was a driving force in the development of players who would combine for 17 all-conference selections and 4 Defensive Player of the Year Award winners. He helped Elfrid Payton shape himself into the 10th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.
Johnson also spent three seasons at Nichols State, where he was mainly in charge of the on-court defense and recruiting efforts. In his second season there, the Colonels went 20-11 and 14-2 in the Southland Conference; the 20 wins were just the second time the program had reached that mark since transitioning to Division I in 1980.
In his two seasons at Louisiana Tech, Johnson coached NBA All-Star Paul Millsap and spearheaded the recruiting of Kyle Gibson, who would go on to score 1677 points, making him the Bulldogs’ 9th all-time leading scorer, right behind Millsap and NBA great Karl Malone.
Johnson’s career began in 1989-90 at Northwestern State, where one of the players he coached was current Southern University AD Roman Banks.
