No one needs to tell Kobe Johnson the situation he’s in or why he’s in it to begin with.
He is the starting point guard for the WVU men’s basketball team.
For now, or for six more games or his role comes with an asterisk; however the people on the outside looking in want to explain it.
Johnson, like everyone else, knows Arizona transfer Kerr Kriisa has just six games remaining in his suspension for accepting illegal benefits. Once that suspension is over, Kriisa is expected to bring a different style of play and a higher expectation with him at point guard.
Here’s the thing, though, Johnson is not playing like a young man looking over his shoulder or as a young man who is worried what others think of him.
“I’m not thinking of that situation,” Johnson said after scoring 19 points and adding six rebounds and five assists — all career highs — to lead the Mountaineers to a 70-57 victory against Jacksonville State on Tuesday inside the Coliseum. “I’m thinking that I’m the starting point guard. I’m going out there every night playing like that.”
Through three games, Johnson, a Canton, Ohio native who had taken all of 96 shots over his first two seasons at WVU, leads this team with 42 shots.
He took 17 of them against the Gamecocks. None of them came with hesitation and some came when his teammates trusted him to have the ball with little time on the shot clock.
“From Day 1, from the moment he first walked into West Virginia, and I watched him play, he’s always been real steady,” WVU head coach Josh Eilert said. “You had to get more aggression out of him and that’s been a real struggle. For Kobe to get more aggressive and get more confidence, that’s going to go a long ways for West Virginia men’s basketball.”
Johnson was a real reason why WVU was able to bounce back from an embarrassing loss last week to Monmouth.
Not just for the game he had, but also his approach to the way he’s leading the team.
“It’s time to block out the outside noise and it’s time to just start being about. That’s West Virginia basketball,” WVU forward Quinn Slazinski said. “Kobe Johnson, tonight, he was about it.”
Johnson is steady, but not flashy. Here’s what you get with steady: In 104 minutes in three games, Johnson has turned the ball over just five times. In those same 104 minutes, Johnson has been called for just one foul.
Now, is that as sexy as leading a conference in assists, which is what Kriisa did last season in the Pac-12?
Not really, but if this ends up being a successful season for the Mountaineers, someone needs to extend their hand out to Johnson and give him one heck of a pat on the back for not folding under the pressure and running this team like a man.
And not like some kid who played scared and conservative, because he knew he was only going to be the starter for nine games.
Which brings us to the question we asked Eilert: If Johnson continues to play better, does the head coach suddenly have a problem when Kriisa returns on Dec. 16?
“Those are good decisions to have to make,” is how Eilert responded. “We’re getting (Johnson) some great experience. We could play Kobe off the ball and use him to isolate some of those smaller guards.
“He gives you things Kerr might not. Kerr is going get downhill and put the ball where it needs to be. Kobe is more steady and takes advantage of his size and strength.”
