Stan Johnson (born September 16, 1979) is a

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

n-born basketball

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

and former player who is the current head coach of the

Loyola Marymount Lions men's basketball The Loyola Marymount Lions men's basketball team represents Loyola Marymount University in men's college basketball. The team competes in the West Coast Conference. The team has played its home game at Gersten Pavilion since 1981. Loyola Marymoun ...

team.

Playing career

Johnson played three seasons at

Southern Utah Dixie is a nickname for the populated, lower-elevation area of south-central Washington County, the southwest corner of the State of Utah, bordering nearby Arizona to the south, and Nevada to the west. The area lies in the northeastern Mojave ...

where he was a team captain and part of the Thunderbirds' 2001 NCAA tournament squad which was narrowly defeated 68–65 by third-seeded

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

in the program's only NCAA Tournament appearance. For his senior season, Johnson transferred to Bemidji State and was the team's leader in assists and an all-conference honorable mention.

Coaching career

Johnson stayed on Bemidji State's bench following his senior year as a one-year stop as an assistant coach before moving on to Southwest Baptist as an assistant from 2004 to 2007, where he was part of a Bearcats MAIAA team which made the NCAA Division II Tournament. After a one-year stop at

Cal State Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge), is a public university in the Northridge, Los Angeles, Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. With a total enrollment of 36,848 students (as o ...

where he tied for first in the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...

, Johnson joined

Jim Boylen James Francis Boylen (born April 18, 1965) is an American basketball coach who currently serves as an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Boylen served as head coach for the University of Utah, c ...

's staff at

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. In 2008–09, the Utes won a share of the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

Championship and the postseason conference tournament title. Utah finished the season ranked No. 25 in the AP poll and earned a No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region, at the time the highest seed ever given to a Mountain West team. He landed at Drake for an assistant coaching spell from 2011 to 2013 before joining

Herb Sendek Herbert Joseph Sendek Jr. (born February 22, 1963) is an American college basketball coach who is the current men's basketball head coach at Santa Clara. Early life Herbert Joseph Sendek Jr. grew up in Pittsburgh and attended Penn Hills High S ...

's staff at

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is one of the largest ...

, where he remained until 2015, helping guide the Sun Devils to an NCAA Tournament appearance in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

. In 2015, Johnson joined

Steve Wojciechowski Steven Michael Wojciechowski (born August 11, 1976), commonly known as Wojo, is an American basketball coach and former player. In 2025, he joined the Utah Jazz coaching staff as an assistant coach following the NBA Call-Up. Wojciechowski previo ...

's staff at Marquette, and was a part of two Golden Eagles NCAA tournament teams. Johnson was responsible for recruiting Markus Howard to Arizona State and, ultimately, Marquette where Howard became a consensus First Team All-American selection as a senior. On March 20, 2020, Johnson was named the head coach at Loyola Marymount, replacing

Mike Dunlap Michael Gregory Dunlap (born May 27, 1957) is an American professional basketball coach who is the head coach for the Colorado Mesa Mavericks men's basketball team. He is the former head coach of the National Basketball Association's Charlotte ...

. In the 2022-23 season, Johnson began the only coach in West Coast Conference history to defeat Gonzaga, Saint Mary's, and BYU in the same season. After defeating BYU on 64-59 in the conference home opener on January 5, 2023, Johnson's Lions snapped Gonzaga's 75-game home win streak on Jan. 19, 2023 with a 68-67 win over the #6 team in the country. LMU then defeated #15 Saint Mary's at Gersten Pavilion on February 9, 2023, for his second nationally-ranked win of the season. Johnson has led LMU to two MTE (Multi-Team Event) Tournament titles in his tenure, winning the Jamaica Classic in 2022 and the Cancun Challenge in 2024.

Head coaching record

References