Former Louisville Assistant Kenny Johnson Is Going to Coach Again

Kenny Johnson is reportedly going to join the staff at La Salle, and that is a very good sign for Louisville basketball.

Former University of Louisville men’s basketball assistant Kenny Johnson is reportedly joining the La Salle coaching staff in 2018-19. The news was first reported by CBS’s Gary Parrish.

Johnson was let go from the Cardinals staff along with head coach Rick Pitino and assistant Jordan Fair on the heels of an FBI investigation into the program for an alleged pay for play scandal. In a report, it was alleged that there was discussion of $100,000 being paid to a potential recruit to play at the University of Louisville.

In my opinion, this is excellent news for the University of Louisville. Kenny Johnson would be the first coach allegedly involved in the FBI’s investigation into Adidas’s James Gato to be fired from his previous job, and find a coaching job elsewhere. This tells me that, at the very least, Kenny Johnson was not involved directly in the pay for play scandal.

Does this mean that Louisville will get off scot-free? Likely, not. But, according to sources of CBS Sports, Johnson was considered by many coaching staffs, and was ultimately chosen because schools could not find any wrong-doing on Johnson’s part.

Reports still indicate that one coach on Louisville’s staff did request the $100k payout for a player (presumed to be now-South Carolina player Brian Bowen). However, schools doing extensive research, and finding Kenny Johnson of no wrong doing, and having enough confidence to hire him over other names on the market is a positive sign for Louisville.

At this point, if you are a Louisville supporter, it is almost better for Louisville to be found innocent of wrong-doing and have to pay Rick Pitino and Tom Jurich than to have to go through another PR nightmare. The likelihood of no one around the UofL basketball program being found guilty of some sort of illegal activity is slim-to-none. That being said, the case is beginning to sound more and more like a rogue employee (sound familiar?) acting in a way which doesn’t represent the university well, rather than a case of systematic cheating.

After 3 years of scandals and various black eyes on the Louisville basketball program, small wins like these can go a long way. At least for today, Cardinal faithful can be happy for Kenny Johnson; A man who gave a lot for the program, and a coach who, it looks like, did things the right way.