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Domestic dispute led Anthony Johnson to withdraw from Charleston search

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Getty Images

We are now less than five weeks from the official start of college basketball practices, and Charleston is still without a head coach.

Why?

Because both of their leading candidates, Wofford’s Mike Young and Charleston alum and former NBA player Anthony Johnson, pulled their names from the search on Wednesday. Young was the first to withdraw from the search, leaving Johnson as the only potential candidate remaining until he, too, pulled his name from contention.

It was an embarrassing moment for Charleston -- They couldn’t hire their most-famous basketball alum to run a good program in a better city? Yikes! -- but it turns out that there really wasn’t much of a choice. Johnson took his name out of consideration after telling Charleston officials of a domestic dispute involving him and his then-wife back in 2011, the Post and Courier reported.

Johnson pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge in June of 2011. He and his wife divorced in 2013. The details aren’t exactly pretty, as he was alleged to have pushed his wife in the throat while she was pregnant in front of their son. Johnson spent 19 days in jail for the incident.

“I let a lot of people down who were really supportive of me throughout this entire process,” Johnson told the paper. “I let down my wife, my family and the College of Charleston and the Cougar community. I cannot tell you how sorry I am for this.”

As of now, both ESPN and CBSSports are reporting that UConn assistant Karl Hobbs and Virginia assistant Ritchie McKay, who both originally interviewed for the position, are currently the front runners.

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