At the press conference yesterday announcing the hiring of new basketball head coach Mark Fox, Fox stated that assistant coach Kwanza Johnson would be following him to Georgia. Like Mark Fox, Kwanza Johnson also has an impressive resume.
Kwanza Johnson graduated from Tulsa in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. In 1999, he obtained a Juris Doctorate degree from the Tulsa College of Law. While at Tulsa, Johnson played basketball for Tubby Smith and advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 1994 and 1995.
Johnson began his coaching career at Tulsa in 1997 as an Administrative Assistant. He then went on to become an Assistant Coach at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (1999-00), Arkansas Little-Rock (2000-01), Tulsa (2001-05), Eastern Illinois (2005-06) and then Nevada (2006-09).
While at Nevada, Johnson helped lead the team to WAC Championships in 2007 and 2008. He also worked with future NBA Draft picks Nick Fazekas and JaVale McGee.
Related Links:
- Kwanza Johnson Bio – NevadaWolfPack.com
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Fox was a disappointing choice. He has had great recruits at Nevada and his teams fall further off the map every year. trent Johnson left him a gold mine, and Fox has since had fantastic recruits. However his teams have failed to win any WAC championships in the past few years, and have lost in first round CBI tourneys at home. He has made a couple of NCAA's in his first two years with Johnson's players, and never made it past a second round losing in a first round to Montana. His players have had all kinds of off court problems Tyrone Hansen was involved at a party where three people were shot, and he was nearly beaten to death. This year Brandon Fields, A. Phillips, and Cotton Giles were caught stealing. Standout Kirk Synder was just arrested on Breaking and Entering, and assault. Fox himself assaulted a ref in the WAC tourney three seasons ago, and the Ref with the WAC decided not to hold a trial. Javale McGee one of Foxes best recruits had a horrible relationship with him averaging only 20 mins a game, but then was a first round NBA pick his Soph year. I'm sorry if I seem critical but did our AD look at this guys resume before handing him a six year 1.3 million dollar contract. He is no Calipari, at least Mark Few is a standout mid major coach 10 consecutive WCC titles, 10 consecutive NCAA appearances and a few sweet sixteens. Fox has none of this on his resume, just seems like a hothead with a lot of baggage coming to Georgia. good luck in the SEC we have some coaches in this conference with stout resumes including your superior Trent at LSU.