Over a bowl of mac and cheese, Erik Johnson experienced all the emotions about his return to the University of Denver.
Johnson, who previously coached DU women’s basketball from 2008-12, was announced as the Pioneers’ next head coach on Monday. That day, he met with the current DU team virtually, told his players at Fairfield (where he was an assistant) he was leaving, and remembered his late son, Davis, while eating that mac and cheese.
Monday would have been . Johnson’s son died at age four as a result of complications from intestinal malrotation in the middle of the coach’s first tenure at DU. Johnson, and their two daughters have celebrated his life every April 20 since he died by eating his favorite dish, one that he requested for his third birthday party where the little boy celebrated with Pioneers players.
“Davis’ birthday is always hard,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t feel right to do a birthday cake, but it doesn’t feel right also to ignore it. So mac and cheese became our family’s tradition to honor him. On Monday, I wasn’t with my family, but they were together, and they had mac and cheese.
“(Fairfield head coach) knew that I was in the office cranking away, trying to return phone calls and get staffing and recruiting going for Denver. So she went out and got takeout mac and cheese for me and brought it into the office and shared it with me, because she didn’t want me to have to be alone. Finding people like that (in this profession) that take care of you, it’s what helps get you through every day.”
Johnson was officially introduced as DU’s new/old head coach on Thursday at Hamilton Gymnasium inside the Ritchie Center, in what he called a “full-circle moment” in a place where the family’s memories of Davis still resonate. Johnson arrives back in Denver following a successful stint at Fairfield, where the Stags won three MAAC Championships and made three NCAA Tournaments in the last four seasons. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Boston College for six seasons, the job he left DU for.
The UC San Diego alum led the Pioneers to a program-best four straight winning seasons in his first stint, going 72-52 with a WNIT appearance in 2011. DU beat four Power 4 teams during that time — Minnesota, Oregon, Colorado and Vanderbilt — and went 24-4 at home over his final two seasons.
But Johnson struggled to replicate that success at Boston College, where he never had a winning campaign. His tenure there ended after the Eagles went 7-23 in 2017-18.
“You could argue that I never should have left Denver, because my family loved it here, and we had a great thing going,” Johnson said. “But I don’t live my life like that (by looking in the rearview). Which is why I’m so thankful for the opportunity to be able to come back, and put DU back on the map.”
Since the departure of Johnson — not to be confused with the former Avalanche player — the Pioneers have struggled.
DU’s had just two winning seasons in the last 14, and went 11-19 in 2025-26 under former head coach Doshia Woods. Johnson will have to rebuild the program at a time when the difficulty of its conference play escalates, as the Pioneers are moving from the Summit League to the West Coast Conference for this upcoming season.
Pioneers acknowledged the Pioneers’ athletic department “isn’t going to win (NIL) bidding wars (for players). We’ve got to focus on fit, and people who want to be here for really holistic reasons.” That philosophy extends to women’s basketball, which gets a much smaller portion of revenue-sharing money relative to men’s basketball and hockey.
In terms of venue, Hamilton Gymnasium, despite a planned upgrade ahead of next season to replace the current bleacher bench system with individual chairback seats, will be one of the smallest basketball facilities in the WCC with a capacity of around 2,000. More upgrades are expected to Hamilton over the next couple years as the university pursues a true arena vibe like most of the Pioneers’ future conference rivals already have.
“We want to see energy, progress, excitement, we want to see (Hamilton) packed,” DU vice chancellor for athletics Josh Berlo said. “We want to start talking about moving games, on occasion, into Magness Arena. We want to see a lot of what we see around a lot of our other programs: Success. It’s a journey, and it’s a space we haven’t conquered yet.”
Johnson said he plans on selling DU’s high-academic experience, its location and its culture in his recruiting, and focusing less on the Pioneers’ new, more prestigious conference affiliation. With that approach, he believes the women’s basketball program can take steps towards achieving consistency on the hardcourt. Berlo has called it the “last frontier” of DU athletics, considering the school’s national relevance in sports such as hockey, skiing, lacrosse, gymnastics and soccer.
“I feel like I oversold the ACC when I was at Boston College,” Johnson said. “The move to the WCC, it’s great and awesome, but we’re not going to be out there with recruits going, ‘Hey, come play in the WCC,’ because you know what, if that kid’s that good, she’s probably going to be recruited by the whole league.
“So we need to be all about Denver, and why we’re different and special and are going to be compete at the highest level in this league. So I need to do a better job than I did at BC of staying true to that and not being about the status, the glitz and the glamor (of a new conference). We’re going to push resources, and we’re going to be creative with our recruiting.”
While DU’s men’s basketball team faces the same challenge — the Pioneers just completed the first season under head coach Tim Bergstraser with a 15-17 record, and have not had a winning season since 2016-17 — Johnson knows a pillar of his recruiting must be getting top local talent to stay home in a state that has produced Division I girls hoops recruits in droves over the past few decades.
The Pioneers probably won’t get Colorado’s five-star prospects, but Johnson says the program will make a play for those players regardless. If DU can corral some of the state’s three-star players, and maybe even a four-star or two, it could turn quickly turn the Pioneers’ fortunes. Johnson will also need to be successful in keeping good players once he gets them, a staple of the success that his Fairfield staff had, and also find some hidden gems in the transfer portal.
“The high school and club coaches of Colorado feel the same way I do — they know we’ve got great players in this state,” Johnson said. “One of my goals is to have DU be a place that’s Colorado central.”
While Johnson works to set his staff and get re-settled on Buchtel Boulevard, those who know what the coach is capable of at DU have high expectations. The Pioneers have made the NCAA Tournament once, a first-round loss in 2001 after they shared the regular-season Sun Belt title with Louisiana Tech.
“If I look in my crystal ball, we’d be up there in the WCC year-after-year and we’re going to be perennially competitive,” said Emiko Smith, who played point guard for DU from 2009-13, the first three of those seasons under Johnson. “We should be knocking on people’s doors (for non-conference match-ups with bigger schools). Whether it’s the NCAA Tournament or the WNIT, making some sort of postseason play is the expectation moving forward.”
