Trent Johnson started his college coaching career as an assistant at Utah in 1986 and served as an assistant at three more universities — Washington, Rice and Stanford — until 1999. 

He got his first head coaching job at Nevada in 1999, where he compiled a 79-74 record over the next five seasons. In his final season at Nevada, he led his team to the NCAA Tournament, beating No. 2 Gonzaga by 19 points in the second round and falling to No. 14 Georgia Tech in the Sweet Sixteen. 

He then went back to Stanford where he led his team to four straight postseason tournaments, including three NCAA Tournament appearances. The 2007-08 team took down Cornell and Marquette before losing to Texas in the Sweet Sixteen.

After leaving Stanford, Johnson took the head coaching job at LSU. In his first season in Baton Rouge, LSU won the SEC Conference Tournament and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers struggled in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, failing to make the postseason both years. 

Johnson has had four players drafted in his time as a head coach, and three of them were drafted in the first round (Kirk Snyder – 16th overall, Brook Lopez – 10th, Robin
Lopez – 15th). 

He has led teams to postseason tournaments in eight of his 13 seasons, five of those being NCAA Tournament appearances. He has won Coach of the Year awards at each school he has coached (Nevada, Stanford and LSU) and in three conferences (WAC, Pac-10 and SEC).