New assistant coach’s impact already being felt by Aggie women

Three months into her tenure as an assistant coach, Paris Johnson’s focus on post play is already paying dividends for the Utah State University women’s basketball team.

Johnson was hired in June to coach post play and bring added tenacity to the defense of a program seeking to recover after a disappointing 2017-18 season in which the Aggies went 7-23.

She was previously director of player personnel at Mountain West Conference rival San Diego State University, where she played from 2008 to 2011 before heading overseas to play professional ball for five years. During her playing career Johnson was not only known as a prolific scorer but also a fantastic shot blocker and she still controls the season and career block records at San Diego State.

"I want to take up that challenge of stopping the best player on the opposing team to help our team get the advantage,” she said. "I really want to take pride in defense. That's the way I was brought up as a player. Defense sets the tone for everything—being aggressive on defense and taking pride in keeping teams down to a lower point range."

Sophomore forward Taylor Franson said Johnson’s impact is already being felt.

"Because of her experience, she understands the game from our side really well,” Franson said. “She knows those little things to tell us that coaches who haven't played that position don't know, and so she's been able to give us those little details that have sometimes been missing to help us make those small improvements to help us on the defensive end and with the shot blocking.”

Franson said Johnson has also become a mentor off the court.

"She really gets what we're going through as student athletes and as female student athletes," Franson said. "She's already become such a good role model and such a good coach for this program."