Making impact without scoring
Now that it is winding down, it’s a good time to put Kaylee Johnson’s Stanford career in perspective. Her academic major is political science, but on the basketball court, it was grunt work.
Whether it was rebounding, defending or setting screens, she did the jobs that didn’t get much glory. Her key asset wasn’t her height (6-foot-3) or her formidable strength. It was her desire.
When she describes the team’s reliance on defense this season, she shows what’s important to her.
“That wasn’t so obvious ... until later in the season,” she said. “We’ve always been a defensive team, but (this season), that’s kind of how we win games. We know we’re not always the most athletic, the most skilled, the most talented or the most experienced team on the floor, but that’s something we can control: our defense. Because that’s just a mind-set. That’s effort. That’s something we want to bring to the floor every night.”
Stanford (19-9, 13-3 Pac-12) is probably not going to win the regular-season conference title — for the fourth straight year — unless first-place Oregon loses at Arizona State on Friday night. The second-place Cardinal visit last-place Washington (7-20, 1-15).
Johnson is one of five players in Stanford history to rank in the top 10 in both rebounds (eighth) and blocks (sixth).
“That’s amazing when you look at who has played at Stanford,” head coach Tara VanDerveer said.
Johnson has not been a consistent scorer, averaging 4.7 points this season and 5.2 for her career. She did have 17 points and 12 rebounds two years ago in an upset of topseeded Notre Dame in the Sweet 16. In the previous year, she was the first freshman to start a season opener for Stanford in 14 years.
Johnson missed 10 games last season as a result of a stress fracture in her left foot. Last spring, her knees were in such bad shape she underwent injections of platelet-rich plasma for her tendinitis. She missed most of the summer workouts.
She said she can’t run as fast or jump as high as she could two years ago. “That’s definitely been frustrating,” she said.
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure she’d be playing this year,” VanDerveer said. She calls Johnson’s return “a bonus. Her leadership and aggressiveness and knowledge of the game have been great. We’re going to miss her a lot. Her grit — she’s a big ‘glue’ player for our team.” She’s the one “who holds other player accountable.”
Junior Alanna Smith said Johnson “is an emotional leader, but she leads by example as well. She is always putting in 100 percent, no matter what. So she kind of brings people along with her.
“The way she plays defense — and she really pays attention to it — is something that we take for granted. Honestly, Tara can just say, ‘Watch Kaylee’ — and we’ll be able to get what we’re (supposed to do) defensively. In that sense, Kaylee has been a leader for almost her whole career here.”
Johnson credits Doug Diehl, her coach at Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyo., with helping her game develop.
“He’s a saint,” she said. “He was in the gym with me every single day, as late as I wanted to be there. That was huge. I’m eternally grateful for everything that’s he’s done and sacrificed for me.”
Her mother regularly drove her 3-4 hours to Colorado or Montana so she could play club ball. “Without that, I don’t think I would have been recruited the way I was. Tara probably never would have heard of me.”
Someday, Johnson might be setting legal screens for clients as a corporate attorney. She plans to go to law school, and got a taste of corporate law as an intern last summer. “I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did,” she said.