Homecoming for Kedrian Johnson gives WVU a shot at beating first-place Texas

MORGANTOWN — Kedrian Johnson is headed back home today, well, sort of.

His family’s home in Dallas is about a three-hour drive from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, where the WVU men’s basketball team will be at noon Saturday to face the fifth-ranked Longhorns.

To be sure, there will be a large contingent of Johnson fans. His immediate family includes a combination of 17 brothers, sisters and first cousins.

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So many, in fact, Johnson said his grandmother splits her gifts each Christmas, when the boys get gifts one year, the girls the next.

How does she keep them all straight?

“I have no clue,” Johnson says with a straight face before breaking out in a chuckle. “I really have no clue.”

What his family will see is WVU’s point guard in the midst of his best college season.

Johnson is coming off a 22-point effort in the Mountaineers’ 76-71 victory on Wednesday against No. 11 Iowa State, in which he played all 40 minutes for the first time this season.

It’s the third time he’s scored 20 or more in a game this, when he hadn’t accomplished that before at WVU (15-9, 4-7 Big 12).

One of those three games was against Texas (19-5, 8-3), which currently sits at the top of the Big 12 standings, a game ahead of Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State and Baylor.

It wasn’t the thought of 20-point games that led Johnson back to WVU for his fifth and final season of eligibility last summer, although there was a sense that he could contribute more.

That came after an offseason of watching film of what was a tough 16-17 season for WVU, one in which he started 30 games, but battled sore hips throughout.

“I just saw areas where I could have done more,” he said earlier this season. “I could have been more aggressive at times, things like that.”

A season later, aside from his shooting percentage, Johnson’s numbers are up across the board. That includes assists, a staple number for point guards.

Last season, Johnson averaged just 1.7 per game, the lowest among Big 12 starting point guards. This season, he’s at 3.2.

His scoring has doubled from 5.3 to 10.6 points per game, and he’s already doubled his number of 3-pointers from last season, while playing in nine fewer games so far.

“Obviously, I’m a drive-first type of person, but when I can step out and make shots, that opens up the drive for me,” Johnson said. “It’s good for me to make shots. It gives me a little more confidence.”

And his teammates’ confidence has grown in him.

“Kedy can make shots — you have to guard him,” WVU forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. said. “We have a number of guys who can get hot at any given time.”

The Mountaineers will enter the game seeking to avenge a 69-61 loss to the Longhorns earlier this season, in which WVU committed 20 turnovers and Texas guard Marcus Carr scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half.

While this will be WVU’s first trip to the new Moody Center — it came at a cost of $375 million and opened last April — the Mountaineers have struggled on the road against the Longhorns. WVU is just 3-7 all-time playing at Texas, with just one victory in the last five tries.

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