James Johnson decides to step down from NC State basketball staff
NC State basketball head coach Kevin Keatts will have a completely new-look assistant coaching staff on the bench next season. Two sources confirmed to The Wolfpacker that James Johnson, Keatts’ first hire as head coach at NC State, has decided to step down from the staff.
One source indicated that the decision was entirely Johnson’s. Johnson and Keatts have met and talked recently, and after those discussions, Keatts was understanding and supportive of Johnson’s decision.
Johnson’s exit follows assistants Mike Summey and Roy Roberson departures from the staff in the immediate aftermath of the season. Those two were replaced by Levi Watkins and Kareem Richardson.
A source indicated that there were no immediate or imminent hire to replace Johnson and that a search would be managed by Keatts to find a new third assistant coach.
Johnson and Keatts were college teammates at Ferrum College in Ferrum, Va. Keatts replaced Johnson as an assistant at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., when Johnson was hired as an assistant at Old Dominion.
Johnson went from there to Elon and College of Charleston before jumping to the Power Five level at Penn State. He then joined current Miami head coach Jim Larranaga’s staff at George Mason before coming to the ACC as an assistant at Virginia Tech in 2007. In 2012, Johnson replaced Seth Greenberg as the head coach but last two seasons before being relieved.
Johnson then reunited with Larranaga at Miami as director of basketball operations for two years before being hired by his longtime friend Keatts.
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James Johnson Is Third Assistant To Leave
Replacing Johnson will be the third hire that Keatts has made this offseason.
From 2002-05, Watkins played 97 games and made 20 starts for NC State basketball, averaging 5.1 points per contest, while working towards a degree in business management.
After completing his eligibility, Watkins worked at NC State, first as an administrator coordinator and then video coordinator. In 2009-10, he was promoted to director of operations, a title he held for four years.
From 2013-15, Watkins was an assistant coach at Buffalo, helping them reach the NCAA Tournament in his final season. He then became an assistant at Arizona State until 2018. In his final season, the Sun Devils reached as high as No. 3 in the country in the Associated Press poll and made it to the NCAA Tournament.
For the past four seasons, Watkins has been an assistant at Ole Miss.
Keatts and Richardson worked together as assistant coaches at Louisville in 2012-13, when the Cardinals won the national title. Richardson was then hired as the head coach at UMKC, where he went 75-118 over six years. Keatts and Richardson scheduled a game against each other in Keatts’ first year with NC State in 2017, which the Pack won in Reynolds Coliseum, 88-69.
This past year, Richardson was an assistant at Clemson, his lone season on Tigers’ head coach Brad Brownell’s bench. The prior two seasons before that, he served as an assistant at Indiana State. He has also had prior stints at Wright State, Drake and Xavier.
Richardson started his collegiate playing career at East Carolina before transferring to Evansville.
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