Stanford Names Johnson Head Basketball Coach
PALO ALTO, Calif.
Trent Johnson, a former assistant basketball coach at Stanford University, has returned to the Palo Alto university to coach, but this time he's running the show.
Stanford announced that Johnson will replace Mike Montgomery as the head coach as of last month. Montgomery left Stanford to take the head coaching job with the NBA's Golden State Warriors. The Stanford basketball program is one of the best in the nation and Johnson is quite familiar with it since he was an assistant under Montgomery from 1996-1999.
Johnson had an outstanding season last year with the University of Nevada Wolfpack who went to the Sweet 16 for the first time in the school's history. They advanced by defeating Gonzaga and Michigan State universities. Johnson's Wolfpack finished the season as co-champions of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and went on to win the WAC Tournament. Johnson finished his season last year with a 25-9 record and ranked 21 (USA Today/ESPN). Stanford finished the season at 30-2 and ranked 6 and at one point hopes of having a perfect season seemed within reach. Stanford is arguably the best team in the conference; however, they are losing PAC-10 player of the year Josh Childress to the NBA, as well as Justin Davis, Matt Lottich and Joe Kirchofer.
With Johnson as the new head coach of Stanford, the PAC-10 now has five minority head coaches.
— F.J.M.
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