Tag: Kobe Johnson

Did Kobe Johnson know that Andy Enfield to SMU was a real possibility?

Was Kobe Johnson’s thought process already established before any Enfield-to-SMU rumors emerged?

It’s that time of year. Much like 2022, when Andy Enfield’s name surfaced for the head coaching vacancy at Maryland, he is now among the top choices to take the helm for the SMU Mustangs basketball program. This raises a question: Did Kobe Johnson hear through the grapevine at USC that SMU was courting Enfield and that the coach leaving was a realistic scenario, or did Johnson have his mind made up well in advance?

Enfield has been at USC since 2013, when he parlayed a deep run in the NCAA Tournament with “Dunk City” at Florida Gulf Coast into a Pac-12 coaching job. Enfield has been one of the most successful coaches in USC history, passing legendary USC coach Bob Boyd for program wins. USC’s ability to place players in the NBA has had an uptick under Enfield with Jordan McLaughlin, Onyeka Okongwu, Chemezie Metu, and the Mobley brothers, Isaiah and Evan, among others.

The Trojans are coming off a very disappointing, injury-filled season in 2024. They were picked to finish second in the preseason Pac-12 media poll, but limped to a ninth-place finish in the league and a second-round exit at the Pac-12 Tournament. A team that was expected to be a shoo-in for the NCAA Tournament finished the season four games under .500 on the year and 9-9 in the conference. Was Kobe Johnson ready for the portal no matter what, or did any Enfield-to-SMU rumor shape his decision? It’s an interesting question.

SMU recently parted ways with Rob Lanier after just two seasons in Dallas. The Mustangs move to the ACC next season and need a new head coach.

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Former Badgers basketball recruit enters transfer portal

Former Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, standout Kobe Johnson (USC) entered the portal Friday.

The first two days of March Madness are over and the Badgers men’s basketball team lost to James Madison in the round of 64, so their focus shifts to the 2024-2025 season.

The team’s attention will partially go toward the transfer portal. Former Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, standout Kobe Johnson (USC) entered the portal Friday.

Related: Wisconsin basketball social media debates Greg Gard’s future as Badgers head coach

Wisconsin never offered Johnson coming out of Nicolet High School in 2021 as a three-star athlete, but they hosted the 6-foot-6, 200-pound athlete for a visit.

Johnson averaged 10.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists in his third season with USC. With the future of AJ Storr in question for the Badgers, Johnson could be an intriguing player to take a look at in the portal for Greg Gard and his staff.

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USC guard Kobe Johnson enters the NBA draft and transfer portal after difficult 2024 season

USC in 2025 will look nothing like the Trojans did in the 2024 men’s basketball season.

The 2024 USC men’s basketball season did not unfold the way Kobe Johnson wanted it to. It didn’t unfold the way anyone in or around the program wanted it to. Put two and two together: Kobe Johnson did not have a satisfying, enriching basketball experience this past season. When that sort of thing happens, an athlete will often want to transfer if he has any eligibility left.

Friday morning, Kobe Johnson entered the college basketball transfer portal while also declaring for the NBA draft. Johnson hasn’t signed with an agent. He is maintaining the option of going back to college if his testing of the NBA waters doesn’t work out.

With Isaiah Collier and Boogie Ellis expected to go to the NBA draft, and with Kijani Wright and Oziyah Sellers having already entered the transfer portal as well, the radical changes in USC basketball’s roster heading into next season are already widely apparent. The 2025 Trojans will look nothing like the 2024 version, and head coach Andy Enfield has to be able to make significant portal additions to replace the bodies that are being lost right now. It will be fascinating to see how Enfield and his staff adjust to the rapid changes unfolding around them.

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USC men’s basketball remains undefeated in March with a victory over No. 5 Arizona

USC won the last Pac-12 men’s basketball regular-season game and did so against a top-10 team.

The USC Trojans came into the final game of the regular season with a chance to improve their record to 14-17, and 8-12 in  Pac-12 games. All they had to do was beat the first-place team in the conference and the No. 5 team in the nation, the Arizona Wildcats. USC had surrendered the last six meetings to the Wildcats, including an 82-67 loss in Tucson back in January.  This previous game was played without USC’s two leading scores and primary ball handlers, Boogie Ellis and Isaiah Collier.

USC got the upset victory on Saturday night. It was the first time the Trojans have beaten a team in the top five since a 2008 road victory at their crosstown rivals, the No. 4 UCLA Bruins, at Pauley Pavillion. Isaiah Collier had a solid game (16 points and five assists). D.J. Rodman also had another productive night, setting a season-high with 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting while grabbing 7 rebounds to lead the team in both categories.  Rodman’s relentless motor and his near perfect shooting propelled the Trojans to a double-digit lead.  

USC’s defense was the difference. The Men of Troy held Arizona’s talented offense, which boasts the second-highest points per game average in the country (90.4 ppg), in check. The Trojans were especially effective in limiting the production of Arizona’s talented backcourt trio of Kylan Boswell, Pelle Larsson, and Caleb Love, who managed to score only 12 points combined. Love, who is fourth in the conference in scoring with an average of 19.63 points per game, was held to just two points throughout the night.

Kobe Johnson, a junior guard for USC, had a standout performance, contributing 19 points, 4 assists, and 6 steals (23 steals in his last six games).

After the game Johnson explained USC’s plan on how to slow down Love and the high-scoring Arizona offense:

“Every time we play Arizona, we know it’s gonna be a physical, physical game, so we knew  coming into it right away that we needed to be the more physical team. The game plan the whole week, so we did focus a lot on Caleb Love because we know how good of a player he is and how good he can be. So we tried to pressure him, trying to make them take some tough shots, which I think we did perfectly. So I think we all follow the game plan exactly how we should have and I think the results show for themselves,” Johnson said.

USC had a season-high 15 steals in the game, reaching double-digit steals for the ninth time this season. Arizona struggled to find a shooting rhythm against USC’s formidable defense, scoring only 65 points and shooting just 38.7% from the field, which is the Wildcats’ second-lowest shooting percentage and its low point total of the season.

Stat of the game: The Wildcats had 14 offensive rebounds — led by rebounding machine Oumar Ballo — but had only two second chance points on the night.

USC has won four of its last five games and five of its last seven to finish ninth in the Pac-12. They will face the Washington Huskies  (17-14, 9-11), the No. 8 seed in the conference, on Wednesday, March 13, in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.

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One Kobe Johnson statistic shows his importance for USC

Kobe Johnson, like his USC teammates, is trying to find a higher level, but it just isn’t happening.

The USC Trojans men’s basketball team lost once again, ending a two-game winning streak. The Washington State Cougars got the win, 72-64, on Wednesday night at the Galen Center.

Bronny James was scoreless, and the only two USC players in double figures were Boogie Ellis and Isaiah Collier once again.

One stat shows just how important Kobe Johnson is to this basketball team. When Johnson scores double digits, USC is 7-1 on the year, as Shotgun Spratling pointed out after the game. They are winless when Johnson does not score in double figures, and the one loss was against the Oklahoma Sooners, so take that as you will.

Johnson is averaging 11.8 PPG with five rebounds this season. He scored 21 against Stanford and 14 against Cal after two games with single-digit points.

Against the Cougars, he had nine points, and what do you know, USC lost the game.

Given the consistency-based problems USC has had, this Kobe Johnson stat shows the importance he has for this program.

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5 prospects (Ryan Dunn!) who have most improved their 2024 NBA Draft stock since the season began

These are some of the most impressive prospects so far.

Even though the 2024 NBA Draft doesn’t have a clear No. 1 pick like Victor Wembanyama was last season, there is still plenty of intrigue.

Over the past few weeks, we have developed stronger opinions on some prospects who have performed exceedingly well since their season began. With an increasingly larger sample size across college basketball as well as internationally and in the G League, some players are beginning to separate themselves from the pack.

While we did not cover all those who have stood out with pleasantly surprising performances, here are some of the players who have already made us turn our heads a few times:

College basketball expert evaluates Kobe Johnson before USC season begins

Don’t forget about Kobe. #USC

We talked to college basketball expert Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated about USC basketball. Our conversation included an evaluation of Kobe Johnson during the Trojans’ summer European tour in August, a three-game series against European professional teams.

“I had seen a good amount of Isaiah Collier. I knew what to expect. I knew he had a chance to be really good. So I wasn’t necessarily surprised to watch some of the film of those overseas games and see him play really well. I think the thing that stood out to me was that it really looks like Kobe Johnson has taken a step forward,” Sweeney told us. “If he has another leap in him, this is one of the best backcourts in college basketball. To go from 1.2 points per game as a freshman to 9.2 as a sophomore and improve as a shooter and improve as a defender, everything scaled up for him last year. You saw (on the European tour) a repeat of that in terms of his confidence shooting the basketball, you saw his ability to handle it, his athleticism. I think he’s gotten somewhat forgotten because Boogie decided to come back, because you’re bringing in Collier or because you’re bringing in D.J. Rodman, who is a Pac-12-level starter already at Washington State.”

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Oklahoma fans were right about Lincoln Riley, at least for this specific season.

USC assistants need to be coaching for their jobs.

Lincoln Riley did not assemble an elite 2023 roster, which surprised us and a lot of other observers.

Is USC ready to win in 2024 with Miller Moss or Malachi Nelson at quarterback? Lincoln Riley has to be honest about how he answers that question.

Brent Venables is coaching Oklahoma far better this year than Lincoln Riley is coaching USC. It’s up to Riley to change that reality.

Kobe Johnson could become an NBA prospect and a sparkplug for USC’s offense

Kobe Johnson has developed his game.

We talked to college basketball expert Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated about this season’s USC roster. Kobe Johnson is gaining notice on a national level.

“I think there’s a world where Kobe Johnson’s being talked about as a potential NBA prospect by mid-season this year,” Sweeney said. “The film didn’t lie in that foreign tour (from August). If he’s going to take the next step, that’s going to open up a ton of different options for Andy Enfield offensively in terms of, okay, how do we want to deploy our backcourt? Do we want to play smaller? Do we want to push the ball? Can we free up Boogie (Ellis) to score even more and not have to be reliant on him to handle the ball when you have (Isaiah) Collier and Johnson together in the backcourt?

“I think there’s just a lot of different things when you have three different guards who you’re really scared of creating off the bounce. That just creates so many problems for opposing defenses. His (Johnson’s) continued emergence in that European tour is a really positive sign for this team this year.”

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Follow Fighting Irish Wire for more on Notre Dame.

Follow Buffaloes Wire for complete coverage of Deion Sanders and Colorado.

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Oklahoma fans were right about Lincoln Riley, at least for this specific season.

USC assistants need to be coaching for their jobs.

Lincoln Riley did not assemble an elite 2023 roster, which surprised us and a lot of other observers.

Is USC ready to win in 2024 with Miller Moss or Malachi Nelson at quarterback? Lincoln Riley has to be honest about how he answers that question.

Brent Venables is coaching Oklahoma far better this year than Lincoln Riley is coaching USC. It’s up to Riley to change that reality.

Kobe Johnson, Tre White stepped up big for USC against Washington

With Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson struggling from the field vs U-Dub, Kobe Johnson and Tre White made winning plays.

So far this season, the USC Trojans have mostly relied on Drew Peterson and Boogie Ellis to get the job done on a nightly basis. When those players had off nights, it would be a tough game for the Trojans.

However, Saturday night was an encouraging sign. The Trojans beat Washington, 80-74, and Ellis and Peterson each shot just 4-14 from the field and finished with a combined 25 points. They combined for 37 against UCLA and 43 against Washington State.

The bench didn’t do much against Washington, scoring six total points, but two players stepped up big: Kobe Johnson and Tre White. After the game, head coach Andy Enfield mentioned both of those players.

Tre White, who is averaging 10 PPG this season, led USC with 22 points on 10-16 shooting and added 8 rebounds in a strong effort from the freshman.

Kobe Johnson, a sophomore who played sparingly last season, came in averaging just 8.1 PPG. However, he emerged with 21 points on 5-7 from the field and a perfect 9-9 from the free-throw line to give USC a much-needed boost in a game they couldn’t afford to lose. Johnson also came up with a drawn charge and a huge steal in the final minutes to seal the win. Johnson’s effort plays and his defensive hustle mean even more than his points, but his big buckets have been massive the past few games against the Washington schools.

Johnson hit two huge three-pointers down the stretch against Washington, and the Trojans did all of this without Reese Dixon-Waters. Overall, it was a very positive night for USC, and Enfield and the Trojans are hoping that Johnson and White can continue to play like this.

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Mapping out USC’s path to the NCAA Tournament: must-win games, overall targets, and more

Kobe Johnson, USC’s glue guy and worker bee, wins fans and admirers … and a game against Auburn

Kobe Johnson isn’t the best player on the court, but he’s the guy who makes hustle plays and does the no-glory tasks needed to win. He showed this vs Auburn.

Kobe Johnson is the kind of player every fan base loves when he’s on their team, and he’s the player opposing fans get annoyed by.

It’s a rich compliment to any athlete when he attains that kind of identity: the guy you dearly want on your team and can’t stand when he’s on the other side.

Kobe Johnson is not an elite shooter. He isn’t a top-tier scorer. He won’t dominate games or get the big headlines.

What he will do, however, is an essential part of winning. Basketball teams can’t win without having players such as Kobe Johnson.

Winning basketball involves scoring points, but winning players don’t have to score points directly in order to win. Winning players can rebound. They can defend. They can pass. They can set screens. They can block out. They can rotate and help their teammates.

Kobe Johnson does these things better than anyone else on the USC roster, and it showed in the 74-71 win over Auburn on Sunday.

Kobe Johnson makes a lot of plays which don’t even show up in the box score: Shots he prevents opponents from taking, points the opposing team doesn’t score. However, he made 15 non-scoring plays which were an essential part of this Trojan victory.

Sure, Boogie Ellis scored 28 points. USC needed every one of them. However, Kobe Johnson’s 15 contributions — 6 steals, 5 rebounds, 4 assists — formed the connective tissue, an essential ingredient in the win. He helped force 23 Auburn turnovers, the biggest single reason the Trojans won.

USC doesn’t prevail without Kobe’s hustle, basketball IQ, and court awareness. He’s an easy-to-love player.

He’s USC’s easy-to-love player, perfect for Andy Enfield’s style of play and overall culture.

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