Kenny Johnson Set To Join Darian DeVries’ Indiana Coaching Staff

Kenny Johnson was an assistant coach under Tom Crean at Indiana and helped the Hoosiers recrut at a high level.

Kenny Johnson is shown during his time at Rhode Island when he was on Archie Miller's staff. | Screen capture.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – To go forward, Indiana men’s basketball coach Darian DeVries will turn to an Indiana figure from the past to join his basketball staff.

The Indianapolis Star reported on Friday that Kenny Johnson will join DeVries staff.

Johnson harkens back to a period where Indiana competed to get the best recruits in the state and otherwise. He was a member of Indiana’s staff from 2012-14 when Tom Crean was head coach.

When Johnson was on Crean’s staff, he helped Indiana produce a pair of top 20 recruiting classes.

In 2013, Indiana had a top five class as Noah Vonleh, Troy Williams, Stanford Robinson, Devin Davis, Luke Fischer and Collin Hartman all came aboard.

Yogi Ferrell, Hanner Mosquera-Perea, James Blackmon and Robert Johnson were also players recruited when Johnson was on the staff.

After Indiana, Johnson left to join Rick Pitino’s staff at Louisville as associate head coach. He was at Louisville from 2014-17. Johnson was later caught up in the FBI turmoil that engulfed Louisville in 2017 and was fired in the wake of the scandal along with the rest of Pitino’s staff.

Johnson's career resumed at La Salle in 2018, but was fired in 2020 after the NCAA launched its investigation into Louisville. Johnson was alleged to have paid recruit Brian Bowen $1,300.

He left to join Archie Miller’s staff at Rhode Island in 2022 and stayed for two years before he spent a year on Ed Cooley’s staff at Georgetown for the 2024-25 season.

While at Rhode Island, Johnson was given a two-year show cause penalty related to his time at Louisville and was restricted from some recruiting activities.

Prior to his first stint at Indiana, Johnson worked at Towson for one season, but his reputation came from his time as a high school coach and the AAU Nike Team Takeover program, which produced 53 Division I players and four NBA players.

Johnson joins Nick Norton and Drew Adams on DeVries’ Indiana staff.

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