Utah Utes basketball: Boylen's new assistants have Utah ties, are happy to help Utes

After losing two assistant coaches last year, Ute basketball coach Jim Boylen scoured the country looking for replacements, only to come up with a pair of young coaches from his own backyard who happened to know each other very well.

Both Barret Peery and Stan Johnson have Utah backgrounds and were both a part of the basketball program at Southern Utah University, yet have experience coaching in other parts of the country. Peery and Johnson joined Jeff Smith on the Ute staff this year, taking the places of Chris Jones and Marty Wilson, who both left for other opportunities.

Boylen couldn't be more thrilled with his three assistants and is happy with the way his two new assistants are working out.

"I've got three workers, three independent thinkers and three guys that believe in where we're going," he said. "I've got three high-character guys."

Boylen first hired Johnson to replace Wilson, who left for a job at Pepperdine even before last season was over.

"I interviewed seven people at the Final Four for Marty Wilson's position, and after 10 minutes with Stan, I knew he was the guy," Boylen said. "He has a foundation of teaching and communicating. He's a great communicator in getting what I want from a player and how I want him to play when I'm not around. He's one of the best I've ever seen."

Born in the African country of Liberia, to an African father and Cuban mother, Johnson moved at age 10 after war broke out in Liberia to Utah, where his father got a job. They settled in Taylorsville, where Johnson played high school basketball and was recruited to Southern Utah, by none other than Peery, an assistant coach to Bill Evans at the time.

After college, he coached at Bemidji State in Minnesota, Southwest Baptist in Missouri and Cal State Northridge, before getting the offer from Boylen.

"I met coach Boylen briefly on the road, a simple handshake and a 20-second conversation," Johnson recalls. " I think I told him you've got a great place and a great job. During our interview, he told me the exact day and time and exact thing I was wearing. That was my only interaction with him."

Johnson is an outgoing type who is popular with the players. He said it helped that he grew up in a household where everyone was welcome.

"My home was like the United Nations," he said.

One of his prep teammates was future BYU player Michael Vranes, and Johnson's younger sister is engaged to former Ute Johnnie Bryant.