Kenny Johnson is coming back to Indiana as an assistant coach, a source confirmed to The Daily Hoosier.
The news appears to have been first reported by Zach Osterman of the Indy Star.
The former Tom Crean assistant will be part of Darian DeVries’ first staff in Bloomington. He was on the IU staff during the 2013 outright Big Ten title season. Johnson was most recently with Georgetown for the 2024-25 season.
Prior to Georgetown, Johnson spent two seasons at Rhode Island on Archie Miller’s staff. In 2022 at the start of that stint at Rhode Island, Johnson was handed a two-year show-cause penalty stemming from his time at Louisville. It included language prohibiting him from some recruiting activity.
Before joining the Rhode Island staff, he was the head coach and athletic director of the nationally-ranked National Christian Academy in Fort Washington, Maryland (2020-22), and an assistant coach at La Salle University (2018-20), the University of Louisville (2014-17), Indiana (2012-14) and Towson University (2011-12).
Johnson has coached numerous NBA players including but not limited to Terry Rozier, Montrezl Harrell, Damion Lee, Jordan Nwora, Donovan Mitchell, Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, Noah Vonleh, Josh Hart and Jerami Grant.
Johnson is known as a top recruiter on a national level and an elite talent developer. After surveying more than 60 collegiate coaches, ESPN Insider named Johnson as the nation’s 10th-best recruiting assistant coach in a 2016 listing.
He began his coaching career in 2002 as the associate head coach at Eleanor Roosevelt High School while eventually becoming the associate head coach at St. Paul VI Catholic High School for four years (2007-11).
While a high school coach, Johnson also served more than six years as a director and head of travel and logistics for the nationally recognized Nike Team Takeover AAU organization and was the head coach of its 16 and under age group during that stint. The program produced more than 53 Division I players and four future NBA players during that time.
Johnson attended Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where his playing career was cut short due to several knee injuries in his second year of varsity basketball. As a senior at Oxon Hill in 1994, he was named Science and Technology Student of the Year.
He earned his Bachelor of Science in cell, molecular biology and genetics in 1999 at the University of Maryland at College Park, where he was a Benjamin Banneker Scholarship recipient. He worked as a protein chemist/molecular biologist at Human Genome Sciences in Rockville, Maryland after graduation.
A native of Oxon Hill, Johnson is married to his wife, Montoya, and has three sons, Amare, Mekai and Kash and one daughter Akylah.
JOHNSON COACHING FILE:
Assistant Coach, Georgetown: 2024-25
Assistant Coach, Rhode Island: 2022-24
Head Coach / Athletic Director, National Christian Academy: 2020-22
Assistant Coach, La Salle: 2018-20
Associate Head Coach, Louisville: 2016-17
Assistant Coach, Louisville: 2014-16
Assistant Coach, Indiana: 2012-14
Assistant Coach, Towson: 2011-12
Associate Head Coach, St. Paul VI Catholic High School: 2007-11
Associate Head Coach, Dr. Henry Wise High School: 2006-07
Associate Head Coach, Eleanor Roosevelt High School: 2002-06
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