RON MALY HAS BEEN WATCHING THE PARADE GO BY FOR A LONG TIME. THIS IS ONE OF HIS WEBSITES.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Stan Johnson Now On Arizona State Coaching Staff

Stan Johnson isn't still at Drake after all. For a few days, he stayed on the staff after Mark Phelps was fired as the Bulldogs' head coach. But now Johnson is gone. Arizona State basketball coach Herb Sendek, in a release posted by the university, said Johnson has joined his staff as an assistant coach. Johnson, most recently at Drake from 2011, had also spent the previous three years at Utah as an assistant coach. Johnson replaces Dedrique Taylor, who became the tenth Sendek assistant to earn a Division I head coaching position when he accepted the Cal State Fullerton job.  Ron Maly recalls that Johnson once said at a Drake basketball lunch at the OverTime sports bar in Urbandale that he has occasionally been mistaken for President Barack Obama. "We celebrate Coach Dedrique Taylor being named the coach at Cal State Fullerton as he did an outstanding job for us and most certainly is ready to lead the Titans," says Sendek, who earned 2009-10 Pac-10 Coach of the Year honors and has led the Sun Devils to four 20-victory seasons. "I fully expect him to do a great job at Fullerton. At the same time, we welcome Coach Stan Johnson to our staff. coach Johnson is impressive in every way and allows us to continue to have a fantastic coaching staff. I was enriched to work with Coach Taylor and I am excited to work with Coach Johnson." During his two seasons at Drake, he helped coach Ben Simons and Joey King to Missouri Valley Conference honors with Simons earning all-Valley second-team honors each of the last two seasons and freshman King earning all-freshman honors in 2012-13. That same season saw the Bulldogs vault to the top of the national three-point shooting rankings as Drake made 8.7 three-pointers per game on 38.8 percent shooting. Johnson brought eight years of experience as an assistant coach upon his arrival at Drake. In Johnson's first season with the Bulldogs in 2011-12 he helped guide Drake to its second-highest conference finish (tied for third) since 1986, and a victory in the postseason for the first time since 1975. Two Bulldogs were named second-team all-Missouri Valley Conference (Ben Simons and Rayvonte Rice), and Simons was named captain of the Valley's most improved team. [Courtesy of Arizona State athletics website].

Stan Johnson. Photo courtesy of Google.