Boys basketball: Numbers up for hungry Ben Lomond as season opener nears
Johnson welcomes back strong numbers in 2nd season as head coach
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- Ben Lomond coach Lyndon Johnson meets with students during his 2026-27 boys basketball tryouts on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, at Ben Lomond High School in Ogden. (CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner)
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- Ben Lomond coach Lyndon Johnson, middle, greets Dom Harris, arriving at the bench during a region boys basketball contest on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, at Ogden High School in Ogden.
CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner
Ben Lomond coach Lyndon Johnson meets with students during his 2026-27 boys basketball tryouts on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, at Ben Lomond High School in Ogden. (CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner)
OGDEN – Participation is one thing, but quality basketball is another. Lyndon Johnson feels both are in store for Ben Lomond boys basketball when the team’s home opener vs. North Sanpete rolls around Nov. 20.
It’s Johnson’s second season in charge of the program, and his first since rejoining the BL football program as Ty Smith’s defensive coordinator this fall. Both coaches are burning the midnight oil to bump up the school’s tryout numbers, and hoops is reaping the rewards of such efforts with roughly 30-plus students showing up to Monday’s first open tryout of the 2026-27 season.
Johnson, who stepped down as BL’s head football coach in 2024, led the Scots to a 2-22 record last year with a varsity roster of just 16 players, including returning seniors Kru Boyle (PG), Dom Harris (F) and Anthony Herrera (F).
“We believe we’re going to be much improved,” Johnson said. “Just in numbers, effort, the weight room and offseason workouts, everything has been all of those things just because of the consistency with the coaches being here.”
He continued:
CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner
Ben Lomond coach Lyndon Johnson, middle, greets Dom Harris, arriving at the bench during a region boys basketball contest on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, at Ogden High School in Ogden.
“It’ll give us the kind of depth that will allow us to play how we want to play, which is pressure and run all the time,” Johnson said. “We just couldn’t do that last year because we didn’t have any depth. We just didn’t have enough depth. Those kids played really hard, but we were just outmanned.”
BL retains its entire coaching staff from last season, as well as a pair of new faces in Brock Randall (a longtime associate of Johnson’s and a former head coach at Ogden High from 2018 to 2022) and Efrain Puente, a faculty member at BL and fitness trainer based in Farr West. A combination of coaching retention and a robust summer schedule has Johnson optimistic about the Scots in the nonregion slate.
The Scots are booked for some big challenges from the jump, including a home matchup with 5A West High and a three-day tournament in Evanston, Wyoming, slated for Dec. 10-12.
“It comes pretty quick,” Johnson said. “You’ve got that Thanksgiving break, and then December’s pretty heavy. We’ve got some good challenges. We play Roy, we play Bonneville, we go to Evanston for a three-day tournament, and the Cheyenne (Wyoming) schools. We’re going to get challenged.”
BL is four years removed from its last winning season, a 15-10 finish in 2021-22 during former coach Tanoka Beard’s third season as head coach. Beard and the Scots managed just 13 wins from 2022-23 to his resignation following the 2024-25 campaign.
Connect with Standard-Examiner sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net, X @ctbecker and Instagram @standardexaminersports.
