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Since becoming Alaska’s interim head coach, Clemon Johnson has been hitting the recruiting trail hard, looking to improve the team.

Now he knows he’ll get the benefits of that hard work.

The Nanooks finalized a deal that was in the work for weeks on Friday, naming Johnson the men’s basketball coach.

“I’m totally pleased that they have that kind of confidence in me, especially the way the season has been going,” Johnson said. “But we have progress coming.

“Needless to say, I’m not looking that far down the road. We’re looking at these next five games and finishing strongly.”

For Alaska athletic director Forrest Karr, bringing back Johnson was an easy move to make.

“I think just my observations of his interactions with our staff and the student-athletes,” Karr said of his biggest reason for wanting Johnson to continue as coach. “With the student-athletes, I think he’s such a positive influence and such a good mentor.

“He’s had success in life, and you can see him working with people, he’s doing it for the right reasons. He’s trying to give back and teach so other people can have success.”

And his players appear to be eating it up — from the lessons on the court to the stories off it.

“He’s first of all, like a teacher to all us then a coach,” junior Mladen Begojevic said. “He’s trying to teach us about not just basketball but life. He’s treating us like we’re his kids.”

Karr said he knew shortly after the Top of the World Classic that Johnson was the man for the job, but he wanted to give the former National Basketball Association big man a chance to experience the community — and the harsh winters — before asking him to make that commitment.

“I think back around the Top of the World tournament, a week or two after that, I had some conversations with parents. They were observing and seeing the same qualities that I was,” Karr said. “I really felt sure, early on, that this was the right person.”

Johnson played 15 years of professional basketball, winning an NBA title as part of the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers, and was a head coach at the high school and semi-pro level and an assistant coach at Florida A&M University before coming to Fairbanks.

But since the Top of the World Classic, when the Nanooks scored an upset of Division I Oregon State, it’s been a hard road for Johnson and his charges.

The Nanooks stand at 4-18 entering tonight’s game against Montana State-Billings and have lost their last 11 games.

“We try not to make too many excuses for wins and losses, but any time you have a new coach, it’s an adjustment,” junior forward Colin Matteson said. “But we’re definitely making progress. I like the direction this team is heading.”

After John Clark and Jesse Bean, two recruits who were expected to make immediate contributions for Alaska, decommitted following the resignation of head coach Frank Ostanik last April and standout guard transferred to Alaska Anchorage, Karr knew a tough road lay ahead for whomever he brought in.

To make matters worse, another anticipated returner, wing Jordan Hayter, then left the team to go on a Mormon mission.

“I think everybody involved with the program thought that this would be a challenging year,” Karr said. “Unfortunately, we had several young men decide at the last second that they weren’t going to be involved with the program. We were left short-handed, so I knew it would be challenging with the coach.”

After numerous legal and academic problems plagued the Nanooks last season, Johnson was brought in to get the program back on the right track. And in that realm, every indication is that he’s been a success.

His players have stayed out of the police blotter and the biggest black marks have been two academic ineligibilities.

“It’s allowed all of us to focus on what we’re here for, and that’s to have the kids lay down a foundation for success,” Karr said. “That’s what this year was about. I think Clemon has laid down a foundation and the community and the kids are going to see the results of that.”

And everyone around the program, from Karr to Johnson to his players, thinks that better days are just around the corner.

Getting the “interim” removed from his title should help Johnson on the recruiting front as players now know he’ll be around by the time they get to Fairbanks. That should let Johnson build upon the verbal commitments he’s already secured, though the coach is quick to point out that those verbals don’t mean much until “we have a name on paper,” when the NCAA signing period begins in April.

“We’ve got a lot of nice faces who have verbally committed to us,” Johnson said.

And he now knows he’ll be around to coach them.

“If anybody can (bring Alaska success), it’s coach Johnson,” Matteson said. “I can speak for myself and my guys, we stand behind him 100 percent.”