The new head coach of the University of Minnesota men’s basketball team, Ben Johnson, is a 1999 graduate of De La Salle High School in Minneapolis, where he helped the school win two state championships. He was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2016.

The University of Minnesota announced March 22 Johnson’s return to Minnesota, where he played two seasons for the Gophers before graduating from the U in 2005. He is currently an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at Xavier University, a Jesuit institution in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Previously, he was an assistant under former U men’s head coach Richard Pitino from 2013-18. “He is genuine, authentic, disciplined; he’s a great guy,” said Mike O’Keefe, who has worked in admissions and marketing at De La Salle since 1990.