The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Diggins, Johnson already teaming up for highlights
It wasn’t a planned play, but it was a play UConn fans hope to see plenty of times in the years to come.
Rahsool Diggins chased down a long defensive rebound in the corner of the court and took the ball up the floor on the left side. A few steps after crossing halfcourt, Diggins swerved toward the middle of the floor and tossed up a linedrive lob towards the right side of the basket.
Samson Johnson swooped in to catch the pass in mid-air and slam it through the hole in one motion. Diggins leapt in the air in celebration, a perfect combination between a pair of future UConn players at Saturday’s Slam 16 Game at Gauchos Gym in the Bronx.
“At first, I wasn’t gonna
do it, becasue it was a little far,” Diggins, a 6-foot-1 point guard at Archbishop Wood in Philadelphia, said about his lob to Johnson. “But he raised his hand, and I was like, ‘Alright.’ I threw a bullet, too. I don’t know how he caught it, but he caught it and dunked it. I was like, ‘Oh, yeah!’”
It wasn’t the only alleyoop the pair combined on in the game, which featured some of the top recruits from the New York/New Jersey area. At another point in the game, Diggins took the ball over midcourt and drove to the lane. Near the top of the key, he juked to his left, took a crossover dribble and tossed a high lob towards the sky.
Again, Johnson, the 6-11 center from the Patterson School in New Jersey, was there to slam it home.
“That was pretty exciting,” Diggins said. “I didn’t know he was that tall, and could jump that high. And
he’s got great hands.”
Diggins and Johnson are seniors who committed to UConn within a couple of weeks of each other this past summer. Diggins, who starred in a seven-overtime classic last December, is ranked as the No. 55 recruit in the nation by 247Sports and was Dan Hurley’s first Class of 2021 commit. Johnson, currently ranked No. 100 by 247Sports, committed on Aug. 10, just a few days after DeMatha Catholic guard Jordan Hawkins
also pledged to Hurley.
It’s a recruiting class currently ranked 10th in the nation.
Diggins played pretty well on Saturday, scoring 15 points to go with nine assists and five rebounds.
“It was pretty fun,” he said. “I think I played well. I didn’t take that many shots. It was more so fun, and the fact that we won.”
Johnson was even better, scoring 12 points to go with eight rebounds and six blocks to secure Co-MVP honors for the game.
“He’s really mobile,” Diggins reported. “He runs up and down the floor and blocks shots. He’s not like a lazy wing/big man.”
Diggins and Johnson had never really met until Saturday’s game. The two not only hooked up on a pair of alley-oops, but also joined forces in trying to recruit Corey Floyd, Jr., a Class of 2022 shooting guard from Roselle Catholic in New Jersey, to join them in Storrs in a couple of years. (Floyd didn’t have much to say about it, mainly because Diggins was mic’d up during the game).
Diggins and Johnson will be teammates once again this weekend for a couple of games at the Pangos AllAmerican Festival in Phoenix.
“That should be fun, too,” said Diggins.
Not nearly as much fun as Diggins and Johnson could bring to Gampel Pavilion around this time next year.