Kwanza Johnson enters his third season as an assistant coach on the Wolf Pack staff. He came to Nevada after spending the previous season at Eastern Illinois University. Johnson's responsibilities include on-court coaching, recruiting and scouting.

In his first two years at Nevada, he has played a key role in helping the Wolf Pack to its fourth and fifth consecutive conference championships as well as two more postseason appearance (NCAA Tournament in 2007 and College Basketball Invitational in 2008).

His work with the Wolf Pack frontcourt helped Nick Fazekas earn first-team All-America honors and his third WAC Player of the Year award in 2006-07, while JaVale McGee earned second-team All-WAC honors and became the second first-round draft pick in school history when he was taken 18th by the Washington Wizards in the 2008 NBA Draft.

As a team, the Wolf Pack set the school record, led the WAC and ranked 15th in the nation with an average of 5.82 blocks per game last year, while Nevada had two players ranked in the WAC’s top 10 in the category for the second consecutive season. McGee led the WAC and was 14th in the country with 2.8 blocks per game. McGee ended his career ranked fourth in career blocks at Nevada with 122 in just two seasons.

Johnson is no stranger to the Western Athletic Conference after serving as a member of the coaching staff at the University of Tulsa for four years from 2001 until 2005. He helped guide the Golden Hurricane to the 2002 WAC regular-season championship and the 2003 WAC Tournament title, while Tulsa advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in both the 2002 and 2003 campaigns. He came to Nevada after spending 2005-06 season at Eastern Illinois.

"We are extremely excited to have a coach of Kwanza's caliber join our staff," Nevada head coach Mark Fox said when he was hired. "He is a valuable addition to our program because of his coaching and playing experience."

Prior to Tulsa, Johnson was an assistant coach at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock in 2001, helping the Trojans improve from four wins to 18 in his one season there. He also was an assistant coach at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo in 2000 and served as an administrative assistant at Tulsa for two years (1998-99).

Johnson played at Tulsa and was a member of teams that advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 1994 and 1995. He was a team captain and was named to the Missouri Valley Conference All-Defensive team in 1995.

Johnson began his collegiate playing career at Rose State College in Midwest City, Okla., where he was the junior college Region II Player of the Year and was named to the national junior college all-tournament team in 1993.

A native of Oklahoma City, Okla., Johnson earned his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Tulsa in 1995 and his juris doctorate from the Tulsa College of Law in 1999.

He and his wife, Kim, have two daughters, Kaitlyn (7) and Kendall (4), and a son, Kalli (1).