Kenny Johnson Returning to Indiana University as Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach Kenny Johnson is coming back to Indiana as an assistant coach, a source confirmed to The South-Central Indiana News Network. The news appears to have been first reported by Zach Osterman of the Indy Star. The former Tom Crean assistant will be part of Darian DeVries’ first staff in Bloomington. He was on the IU staff during the 2013 outright Big Ten title season. Johnson was most recently with Georgetown for the 2024-25 season.
Prior to Georgetown, Johnson spent two seasons at Rhode Island on Archie Miller’s staff. In 2022 at the start of that stint at Rhode Island, Johnson was handed a two-year show-cause penalty stemming from his time at Louisville. It included language prohibiting him from some recruiting activity. Before joining the Rhode Island staff, he was the head coach and athletic director of the nationally ranked National Christian Academy in Fort Washington, Maryland (2020-22), and an assistant coach at La Salle University (2018-20), the University of Louisville (2014-17), Indiana (2012-14) and Towson University (2011-12). Johnson has coached numerous NBA players including but not limited to Terry Rozier, Montrezl Harrell, Damion Lee, Jordan Nwora, Donovan Mitchell, Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, Noah Vonleh, Josh Hart and Jerami Grant.
Johnson is known as a top recruiter on a national level and an elite talent developer. After surveying more than 60 collegiate coaches, ESPN Insider named Johnson as the nation’s 10th-best recruiting assistant coach in a 2016 listing. He began his coaching career in 2002 as the associate head coach at Eleanor Roosevelt High School while eventually becoming the associate head coach at St. Paul VI Catholic High School for four years (2007-11). While a high school coach, Johnson also served more than six years as a director and head of travel and logistics for the nationally recognized Nike Team Takeover AAU organization and was the head coach of its 16 and underage group during that stint. The program produced more than 53 Division I players and four future NBA players during that time.
Johnson attended Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where his playing career was cut short due to several knee injuries in his second year of varsity basketball. As a senior at Oxon Hill in 1994, he was named Science and Technology Student of the Year. He earned his Bachelor of Science in cell, molecular biology and genetics in 1999 at the University of Maryland at College Park, where he was a Benjamin Banneker Scholarship recipient. He worked as a protein chemist/molecular biologist at Human Genome Sciences in Rockville, Maryland after graduation. A native of Oxon Hill, Johnson is married to his wife, Montoya, and has three sons, Amare, Mekai and Kash and one daughter Akylah.
Indiana University Football’s Austin Barrett to Enter the Transfer Portal Indiana offensive lineman Austin Barrett is entering the transfer portal; he announced on social media Friday. Barrett will have three years of eligibility remaining for his new program. He joined IU as a true freshman in 2023, choosing Tom Allen’s Hoosiers over other offers including Cincinnati, Duke, Illinois, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia. The St. Charles, Ill. native didn’t see the field in 2023 and redshirted. Barrett played in five games for Indiana last season, mainly at right tackle, totaling 49 snaps across those contests (per Pro Football Focus). Nearly half of those snaps came in IU’s historic 77-3 win over Western Illinois. Barrett was projected to fill Indiana’s backup right tackle slot again this coming season, behind Ohio State transfer Zen Michalski. It’s unclear who IU’s next option would be at backup right tackle.
Bradley Assistant Coach Mike Bargen Expected to join the Indiana University Men’s Basketball Staff Bradley assistant coach Mike Bargen is expected to join Darian DeVries’ IU basketball staff, according to a report. His role with the program is not clear at the moment. The news appears to have been first reported by Aaron Ferguson of the Indy Star. Sources have not been able to confirm the report as of early Friday afternoon. For the last 10 years Bargen has been an assistant coach at Bradley. Prior to that he spent eight years as head coach at Butler Community College, and three years prior to that he was there as an assistant. Bargen was on the staff at Creighton as a graduate assistant (1999-2004) with DeVries more than 20 years ago. Bargen played college basketball at Marquette from 1995-99. Here is Bargen’s full profile from the Bradley site:
Continuing to succeed at every level during his career, Mike Bargen is now in his 10th season as an associate head coach with the Bradley basketball program. After totaling 163 wins in one of the nation’s toughest junior college leagues and a standout playing career at Marquette, Bargen has added back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference Championships with the Braves in 2019 and 2020. In seven years on campus, Bargen has been a key member of a staff that rebuilt the Bradley program from the nation’s youngest team in 2015-16 into MVC Champions in 2019 and 2020. The Braves won their first Valley Tournament title in 31 years to cap the program’s resurgence in 2019 before repeating the feat a year later and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1954 and 1955. Bargen has worked directly with and helped recruit six All-MVC selections and seven All-Freshman honorees during his time on The Hilltop as Bradley has once again reached the top of the Valley.
Bargen joined the Bradley sideline after an eight-year run as head coach at Butler Community College. During his tenure on the El Dorado, Kansas, campus, Bargen was twice named Jayhawk Conference Coach of the Year and led the Grizzlies to a 164-93 (.683) record. He averaged more than 20 wins per season at Butler, highlighted by a 29-4 record during the 2014-15 campaign and an at-large berth into the NJCAA National Tournament. While climbing to as high as No. 4 in the 2014-15 NJCAA Top 25, Bargen’s final Grizzlies team set school records for the most wins in a regular season (28), conference wins in a season (14), best winning percentage (.879) and consecutive wins (22), while enjoying a perfect 16-0 home record. In addition to his team success, Bargen helped 21 players move on to NCAA Division I (13) and II (eight) programs. His players earned 15 All-Jayhawk Conference awards and he produced 10 NJCAA All-Region VI honorees, as well as a first-team NJCAA All-American.
Bargen played collegiately from 1995-99 at Marquette, where his career overlapped with current Braves head coach Brian Wardle. A two-year starter for the Golden Eagles, Bargen was the team captain and Most Valuable Player during his senior season in 1998-99, when he led team in rebounds and blocked shots and finished second in scoring. After earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Marquette in 1999, Bargen received his master’s degree in business administration in 2004 from Creighton University, where he served as a graduate manager on Dana Altman’s Bluejays staff. In the three seasons Bargen spent with the Bluejays, Creighton amassed a 72-23 (.758) record, won the 2002 Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title, claimed two MVC Tournament titles (2002, 2003) and played in two NCAA Tournaments (2002, 2003) with a first-round win against Florida in 2002. During that time, Bargen also had an opportunity to work with a quartet of All-MVC players, including current NBA players Anthony Tolliver (Memphis Grizzlies) and Kyle Korver (Milwaukee Bucks). Bargen began his tenure at Butler Community College as an assistant coach for three seasons from 2004-07. He was promoted to head coach for the 2007-08 season and by his third year in 2009-10, he led the Grizzlies to their first Jayhawk West Conference championship since 2001. His 2009-10 squad finished with 29 wins and Butler won the Region VI championship for the first time since 1996, qualifying for the NJCAA National Tournament for the fourth time in program history.
Former Indiana University Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach Kenya Hunter and Staff Member Issac Green find New Homes Two more former members of Mike Woodson’s IU staff have found new homes this week. According to a report by Jeff Goodman of Field of 68, outgoing IU assistant coach Kenya Hunter will join Sean Miller’s staff at Texas as an assistant coach. Hunter’s five-year tenure at IU started under Sean’s brother Archie. Hunter has been connected to the Miller family for a long time. He was the Director of Basketball Operations at N.C. State when Archie played there, and he worked on Sean’s staff at Xavier from 2004-07. During his time at IU, Hunter played a key role in several high-level recruitments, including Jalen Hood-Schifino, Malik Reneau, Tamar Bates, Xavier Johnson, Bryson Tucker and others.
Also, in the news this week is Isaac Green, who recently completed his fourth season at IU, serving as the team’s Video & Player Development Analyst for the past two years following two seasons as a Graduate Manager under Woodson. Green was hired by new Oral Roberts head coach and former IU player Kory Barnett. Green will have the title assistant coach/chief of staff under Barnett. “I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to be a part of the Oral Roberts University community,” said Green in a release. “I have the utmost faith in the vision that Coach Barnett has for this wonderful basketball program, and I will work each day to support him in bringing that vision to life.” Former Indiana Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach Yasir Rosemond has been named an assistant coach at LSU.
Indiana Pacers to face the Milwaukee Bucks in the First Round of the NBA Playoffs With the Indiana Pacers loss to the Magic and the Milwaukee Bucks win against the Pistons on Friday night, the first-round playoff matchup is set. The Pacers will play the Bucks in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year. “They’re great. They got two of the best players in the world,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’re all too familiar with how lethal they are as a team. They’ve gotten better this year. They’ve got more depth. They’ve got more shooting, more size, better defense, and so, many challenges.” Last year, the Pacers got the best of the Bucks, winning the series in six games. The Bucks were without Giannis Antetokounmpo for the entire series. The Pacers went 1-3 against the Bucks in the regular season this year. The Pacers will be the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference and will have home-court advantage in the series. They went 3-0 against the Bucks at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in the playoffs last season.
Indianapolis Colts re-sign Veteran Tight End Mo Alie-Cox The Indianapolis Colts locked down another member of their 2025 roster on Friday with the signing of veteran tight end Mo Alie-Cox. Alie-Cox was originally signed by the Colts as an undrafted free agent on April 20, 2017. He has started in 47 of 108 career games with the Colts and has caught 114 passes for 1,433 yards (12.6 avg.) and 15 touchdowns. In three postseason appearances, he’s totaled four receptions for 32 yards. In 2024, Alie-Cox played in all 17 games for the Colts, starting 13, and caught 12 passes for 147 yards and one touchdown. Alie-Cox was a four-year standout on the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s basketball team. He totaled 1,092 points in 103 games and is the school’s all-time leader in field goal percentage.