Kenny Johnson was fired by LaSalle after Louisville, who already fired Johnson, received a Notice of Allegations naming Johnson as author of a serious violation that LaSalle knew about when they hired him.
Some mistakes are never truly forgotten or forgiven, but rarely does a coach get fired twice for the same infraction as LaSalle assistant Kenny Johnson was yesterday.
Johnson was an assistant at Louisville prior to being hired at LaSalle. While on Rick Pitino’s staff, according to testimony from the father of recruit Brian Bowen, he gave $1,300 in cash to Bowen the elder outside the Galt House to cover a portion of his rent.
Louisville fired Johnson as a result of that testimony. In fact, Louisville dismissed virtually their entire leadership flowchart from Johnson up because of the violations revealed during Bowen’s testimony.
As you might guess, the story was well reported. If you google “Kenny Johnson fired by Louisville,” 689,000 results are listed. It seems unlikely in the extreme LaSalle University was unaware of Johnson’s payment to Bowen when they hired him. Yet LaSalle fired him because his named appeared in the Notice of Allegations Louisville received last week from the NCAA.
If it was a good idea to hire Johnson two years ago, why is it suddenly a bad idea to retain him today. I’m not defending Johnson’s actions, but what’s the difference between Johnson in 2018 and Johnson last week – an NCAA NOA?
Johnson’s plight shows exactly why college basketball continues to fight its image problem. Louisville defied rules at an embarrassing level, and Johnson was hired by another school despite his role because the NCAA took two years to take testimony given under oath and turn it into an NOA.
Yikes.