The Final Four suits him to a T. That is T, as in Coach T.

That is Terry Johnson.

Although this college basketball Final Four will be Purdue’s first since 1980, it will be the third since 2010 for Johnson, one of the Boilermakers’ assistant coaches.

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The first two were on staffs of Butler’s runner-up teams in the NCAA tournament, and Johnson retains close ties with those Bulldogs. Soon after Purdue beat Tennessee 72-66 Sunday to win the Midwest Regional, he received a text from Matt Howard and a FaceTime call from Shelvin Mack.

After Johnson left Ohio State, he told Mack he intended to help Matt Painter take Purdue to a Final Four.

“He was just like, ‘You remember what you said to me? You guys just did it,’“ Johnson said.

The Purdue assistant coach acknowledged reaching this Final Four feels different from the other two.

He said he “took it in more,” sharing the moment with his three sons, twins Jaden and Jordan, 11, and Caden, 8. The boys spent much of the season trying to be shown on the Mackey Arena videoboard, often successfully.

Johnson’s wife, Kristen, manages the boys’ sports schedules: basketball, football, baseball, soccer, gymnastics, wrestling.

“I can’t do this or be where I am right now without her,” Johnson said.

For 10 years, the one players called Coach T was a thread tying the Bulldogs together. He was at Hinkle Fieldhouse through eight NCAA tournaments, seven academic All-Americans, four head coaches, three conferences, two Final Fours.

Johnson was hired by Todd Lickliter in 2004 as Butler’s director of basketball operations. Johnson was an assistant for two years at what is now Purdue Fort Wayne under Dane Fife before he was rehired in 2007 by Brad Stevens.

“Players, coaches, staff, family, everybody in the building knows how invested he is in them,” said Stevens, now the Boston Celtics’ president of basketball operations. “All of that, combined with the fact he’s a really good coach, how good of a person he is cannot be overstated. He’s an amazing guy.”

With an amazing energy.

DePaul coach Chris Holtmann, whose Butler and Ohio State staffs included Johnson, said Butler center Tyler Wideman would come in sluggish to morning workouts. Coach T supplied a bigger jolt than a pot of coffee.

“He just screamed in his high-pitched voice. ‘Not today, T.Y.! Not today!’ ” Holtmann said.

What characterizes Johnson is how much he cares about the players and his propensity to bring out their best, according to Holtmann and Stevens.

“I think that comes clearly through at whatever program he’s a part of,” Holtmann said. “The coaches that work with him love him. The players love him.”

Johnson, 50, was born in Philippi, W.Va., and moved to Anderson, Ind., as an infant. He was a three-sport athlete at Anderson High School and an athlete at three colleges: Lincoln Trail; Lamar in Beaumont, Texas, where he led the basketball team in assists and steals for two seasons, and Purdue Fort Wayne, where he was an all-conference baseball outfielder.

He played pro baseball with the Tri-City Posse (Wash.) in the Western League for two years and for the Anderson Lawmen in the Heartland League for one year.

If the Final Four is college basketball’s paradise, it is coincidental that Johnson’s Purdue journey began after he left paradise.

His family was returning from a Hawaii vacation in 2021 when his cellphone rang in the Atlanta airport. On the line was former Butler coaching colleague Micah Shrewsberry, who was leaving the Purdue staff to become head coach at Penn State. Might he want to be offensive coordinator at Purdue? Johnson acknowledged it “threw me for a loop” because he had focused on defense.

He and Holtmann, after collaborating for seven seasons, agreed the move would allow Johnson to be better positioned for a head coaching job. Also, Johnson was familiar with Painter, who was once an assistant coach at Washington & Jefferson College (Pa.), a Division III school. Johnson’s twin cousins, Matt and Mark Johnson, were all-conference players there.

“There was no way I could say no to that,” Johnson said.

If there is a trait shared by Stevens, Holtmann and Painter, it is how competitive they are, Johnson said. But to coach at Purdue is not the same as at Butler.

“At Butler, we were the underdogs, right? Here, we’re the top dogs,” Johnson said. “That’s such a different feeling. It’s a different pressure, per se, from the outside.

“You obviously put pressure on yourself. Our pressure at Butler was on ourselves. We wanted to be great. Matt Howard always said, ‘Be excellent,’ and that’s how we played.”

Pressure mounted after Purdue, as a No. 1 seed, was upset by 16^th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson 63-58 in last year’s NCAA tournament. The only other 16-over-1 upset victim was 2018 Virginia — which went on to win the national championship a year later.

Johnson has been in regular contact with the Virginia staff, although that relationship was forged before March 2023 because the programs share a similar ethos.

“It just so happens we went through some of what they were going through,” Johnson said.

Advice from Virginia was for the Boilermakers to continue doing what they’re doing, but to do it better. And to tune out the noise.

“You can’t change what happened,” Johnson said. “It’s sports. It happens to everybody. If it was easy, everybody could do it.”

Not everybody has Coach T’s resume: 14 trips to the NCAA tournament since 2008 (Ohio State also would have made it in 2020), a 24-13 record in the tournament, a collective record of 418-159 (.724).

He has returned to being a defensive coordinator, resulting in a more animated demeanor on the Purdue sideline. He used to jump into scrimmages himself while at Butler.

“He knows ball, too,” as Holtmann put it. “He knows what wins.”

Johnson has interviewed for head coaching jobs at Butler, Ball State and IUPUI. He conceded he was disappointed when turned down, but not for long.

“I always realize I do have a job, I’m at a great place where I get treated well, and I can provide for my family,” he said. “And I’m doing my ‘why’ to get into coaching. It’s all about helping young men reach their potential and reach their dreams.”

Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball assistant coach Terry Johnson in third Final Four