Two former Tulsa stars named assistants

(TULSA, Okla.) -Two former Tulsa basketball standouts will return to the Golden Hurricane as assistants under new head coach John Phillips.

Phillips named Kwanza Johnson (pictured) and Alvin ``Pooh'' Williamson, both members of the 1994 and 1995 NCAA tournament regional semi-final teams, as assistant coaches on Thursday.

``It's great to have two young guys who have solid coaching experience and are graduates of the University of Tulsa return home,'' Phillips said.

Johnson, 29, spent the past season as an assistant coach at Arkansas-Little Rock, which finished 18-11. He previously served as an assistant at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Williams, 28, worked on the coaching staff at Tulane University for one season and previously spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Illinois State.

``In their brief coaching careers, both Kwanza and Pooh have demonstrated their abilities to recruit and teach the game of basketball,'' said Phillips, who was named head coach Monday. ``As players, they helped put Tulsa basketball on the map, and as coaches they'll be instrumental in continuing our basketball success.''

Johnson, who played prep basketball at Oklahoma City's John Marshall High School, averaged 8.8 points and 6.3 rebounds as a starting senior at Tulsa. He served as Tulsa's basketball administrative assistant from 1997 to 1999 while completing his law degree.

Williamson, a four-year letter winner at Tulsa, was a double-figure scorer in both his junior and senior seasons, with a 7.2 career scoring average. The Beggs native completed his college career ranked seventh on Tulsa's all-time assists chart and 10th in career steals.

Williamson worked one year as an assistant coach at Washington State before going to Illinois State.