Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Johnson bounces back ahead of AAC tourney
It had been four games since UCF men’s basketball point guard Darius Johnson finished in doubledigit scoring but that’s just what he did Sunday against East Carolina.
Johnson totaled 10 points and dished out 4 assists, helping the Knights (17-13, 8-10 AAC) close out the regular season with an 84-58 win over the Pirates (15-16, 6-12 AAC) at home.
While it was far from the best performance he’s had this season, it ends a challenging stretch of games for the sophomore who was named to the American Athletic Conference All-Freshman team last season.
In the three games prior, he had combined to score 7 points, including zero against Tulsa on Feb. 26.
“This was a really good bounceback game for him,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “He’s had a tough time.”
Johnson’s second season of college basketball has been nothing but bumpy.
He opened the year on the bench due to a lower-body injury sustained in preseason practice. After missing the first five games of the season, he returned for seven straight before exiting against ECU on Jan. 4 with a different lower-body injury.
This time he would miss four more games and return on Jan. 25 vs. Houston.
“He’s a sophomore point guard who’s been in and out most of the season,” Dawkins said. “He has a lot of responsibility in that position especially for us with our team and a lot of new personnel.”
After he returned against the Cougars, Johnson scored at least 12 points in five straight games but recently has struggled on offense.
He averaged less than 4 points per game in the following four matchups.
Dawkins said he believes that can be attributed to a lack of balance between sharing the basketball and scoring on his own.
“He had leaned so far to the other side that he forgot about himself,” the UCF coach said. “He was a double-digit scorer. You look at the last five games and say, ‘OK, what’s happening?’ He’s had some tough games.
“He had to go through that process and we had to go through it with him but it’s good to see us come through that on the other side to where he’s able to bounce back,” Dawkins added.
The timing of Johnson returning to his old self on offense could bode well for the Knights, who face No. 10 seed SMU (10-21, 5-13 AAC) in the first round of the AAC tournament Thursday (2:30 p.m., ESPNU) in Fort Worth, Texas.
“It was good to see him get back to who he is,” Dawkins said. “He had a great floor game of balancing out and making sure [his teammates] touch the ball but also picking his spots. It was good to see.”
Dawkins feels confident about what his team can accomplish in the conference tournament. That’s because the Knights have come close time and time again in the regular season.
UCF has lost 10 games by single digits and six by a single possession this year, three of which came in the final six games of the regular season.
“These guys have been right there,” Dawkins said. “They know they’re capable of winning games. We just have to do it. We just have to go out there and make it happen. That’s the best way to be.”