Former standout Tim Johnson enters his fifth season as an assistant coach on the Wofford men's basketball staff. He returned to the program for the 2013-14 season.
Johnson was selected to the Wofford College Athletics Hall of Fame in the summer of 2016 and officially inducted in the fall of that year. He ended his four-year playing career as the only Terrier in the program's Div. I era to record over 1,000 rebounds, and was the first to do so since Stephon Blanding (1987-90). He led the Terriers to their first two Southern Conference Tournament Championships and first two NCAA Tournament appearances, and was a two-time All-Southern Conference selection.
In his first three years as an assistant at Wofford, Johnson has helped guide the Terriers to their third and fourth Southern Conference Tournament championships and NCAA Tournament appearances. Johnson was also a part of the previous two championships as a player, helping the program win its first as a junior in 2009-10, and its second as a senior in 2010-11. He and assistant coach Kevin Giltner have both been a part of all four titles. Both were four-year letterwinners for the Terriers.
Johnson has had a positive impact on the Terrier program both in recruiting and player development. He works primarily with the Terrier post players.
Johnson's recruiting ties to the DMV and Memphis areas have been integral to the Terrier's recruiting efforts. Johnson led the charge in the recruitment of Nathan Hoover, a 2016 SoCon All-Freshman selection out of Memphis, TN. Johnson has also helped to give the Terriers a presence in the DMV area with the recruitment of the 6'9 forward, Keve Aluma, the 2016 All Bayside South Player of the Year. Aluma is the first recruit from the state of Maryland during the Mike Young era at Wofford. Johnson also played a significant role in the recruitment of the DMV's Cameron Jackson (Winchester, VA/John Handley High) as well as several other current Terrier players.
Several Terrier forwards have flourished under Johnson's mentoring, including returning starter Cameron Jackson who has developed into one of the leaders of the program and a top forward in the Southern Conference. This past season, Jackson was third on the team in scoring average as a sophomore and was second on the team in rebounding.
Johnson coaching and development of post players has also helped two Wofford players turn professional. Lee Skinner spent his junior and senior seasons with Coach Johnson, and now plays professionally overseas. Skinner was selected as an all-conference player in each of Johnson’s first two seasons back at Wofford, averaging a team-high 7.4 rebounds and registering nine double-doubles during the 2013-2014 season.
Skinner was named 2014-2015 Southern Conference Tournament MVP, averaging 14.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and shooting 62.5 percent during the 2015 Southern Conference Tournament. In 2014-15, along with Skinner, Johnson mentored and guided forward Justin Gordon, whose points per game increased from 5.5ppg to 11.6ppg and his field goal percentage from 44% to 59% during his two years with Johnson.
In 2014-15, Johnson helped coach the Terriers to their most successful season in program history. The Terriers went 28-7 overall, 16-2 SoCon, en-route to the SoCon regular season title. The 28 wins and 16 SoCon wins were both the most in school history, as the Terriers also went on to claim their fourth SoCon Tournament title in the last six years. Wofford earned a 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament, its highest seed in school history.
Prior to joining the Wofford staff, Johnson served as a graduate assistant at Wyoming for two seasons with head coach Larry Shyatt. Shyatt is widely regarded as one of the best defensive minds in basketball. "I was afforded the opportunity to pick the brain of one of the sharpest minds in our business,” said Johnson. “My learning and experience with Coach Shyatt has altered the course of my career in the best way imaginable.”
Both of Johnson's seasons at Wyoming resulted in post-season appearances. He helped the Cowboys to a 21-12 overall record in 2011-12 and their first postseason berth since 2009. The team was 20-14 overall in 2012-13 and reached the second round of the College Basketball Invitational.
At Wyoming, Johnson was able to mentor and aid in the development of Larry Nance Jr. during his freshman and sophomore seasons. In Nance’s sophomore season, he averaged 10.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.3 steals, 1.2 assists and 0.7 blocks per game while shooting a team-high 53 percent from the field. He went on to become a Mountain West all-conference selection by his senior year and was drafted as the 27th overall pick by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2015 NBA draft.
In Johnson's four seasons as a player at Wofford, he helped guide the team to unprecedented success under Coach Young. During his final two years, Johnson earned two All-Southern Conference accolades to lead the school to two-straight conference championships and appearances in the NCAA tournament.
As a senior in 2010-11, Johnson averaged 6.0 points and a conference-high 8.5 rebounds per game to pace Wofford to a 21-13 overall record and NCAA berth against BYU. During postseason play, he grabbed his 1,002nd career rebound to become Wofford all-time leader in the Division I era.
During his junior season in 2009-10, he averaged 7.9 rebounds per game to finish fifth in the SoCon in rebounding. The team posted a 26-9 overall record and won the Southern Conference Tournament for the first time in school history. Wofford faced Wisconsin in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. As a sophomore, he was the only player on the team to start all 30 games and was second in the Southern Conference in rebounding with 8.7 per game.
A native of Memphis, Tenn., Johnson graduated from Wofford with a Bachelor’s degree in English in May, 2011. He earned Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll accolades three times. He earned his Master’s in Communication (with an emphasis in Journalism) from Wyoming in 2013. Johnson married the former Brittany English on May 20, 2017. The couple resides in Spartanburg.
