One of the best high school coaches in Minnesota this season is a former Gophers basketball player you might remember playing almost like it was yesterday.
It sure doesn't seem like eight years have passed since Damian Johnson was a starting senior forward for the U -- and one of the top defensive players in the Big Ten.

The 6-foot-7 Louisiana native ended his career on a high note by helping the Gophers reach the NCAA tournament with a magical run to the conference tournament title game in 2010.
Now nearly a decade later, Johnson is running his own program as North St. Paul's varsity boys basketball coach after a couple years as an assistant at Eden Prairie. The Polars, who won the Metro East title with a 13-1 record this year, defeated Tartan on Wednesday to advance to the Class 4A Section 6 semifinals. They will play top-seeded Cretin-Derham Hall (25-2) and Gophers recruit Daniel Oturu at 7 p.m. Saturday at Hastings High School.
In a Q&A last month, Johnson talked about his first season at North St. Paul, how he got into coaching and the Gophers.
Q: How rewarding has it been to see the Polars have so much success in your first season?
A: The kids were kind of hungry. They had a bad year last year. They wall wanted to win. We've got a lot of guys who are seniors (scoring leader Goodnews Kpegeol 18.2 ppg) who want to go out with a bang. It's not me. It's them wanting to work and get better. I just want to help guys reach the heights I've reached and even go further. I think being able to help a lot of guys understand the game and doing the extra stuff it makes my day a lot better. I feel like all the work those guys put in makes me proud. I walk around with a smile on my face seeing those guys put in work and wanting to get better.
Q: Did you always want to become a basketball coach one day?