Keyontae Johnson has led the Gators in rebounding at 6.5 per game, since being promoted to the starting lineup in January.
More Motor Keys Johnson's Increased Minutes, Productivity
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Keyontae Johnson had heard it before. His AAU coach in Virginia had talked about it. His coaches at two of the most prestigious prep basketball programs in the country had addressed it. It soon became a topical subject for his coaches at Florida, also.
"He knew what was holding him back," Gators assistant coach Darris Nichols said.
Nothing about his skill set was the problem. A 6-foot-5, 225-pound freshman forward from Norfolk, Va., Johnson was the best athlete on the UF team the moment he arrived last July. That was no different than his previous basketball stops. Neither was his habit of coasting at times or taking off possessions here and there.
"Every coach I've ever had has talked to me about my motor," Johnson said. "It's frustrating because it's never seemed like I wasn't playing hard. They'd say I'd jog up the court, but it didn't feel like I was jogging up the court."
For nearly two months into his first collegiate season, Johnson's "motor" was a point of emphasis. The Gators coaches pointed out instances in real time at practice where the action was on one side of the floor and he was still on the other. They belabored the point in both individual and team meetings. Johnson, more often than not, would balk at the notion.
There's an old saying in basketball that goes like this: "Ball don't lie."
Well, film don't lie, either.
In December, Johnson's parents were in Gainesville and met with the UF staff. They were told of a kid who wasn't very coachable, who sometimes complained, even talked back, and needed to rev his motor more; a lot more. They were shown tape from practices and games. When all had been said, they had message to their son:
"This isn't you."
The 10 weeks or so since?
"He's really developed over the course of the year," Florida coach Mike White said. "The biggest thing for Keyontae is that he's learned to play harder for long stretches and that's made him more dependable."
In January, five games into the Southeastern Conference season, White promoted Johnson to the starting lineup, joining his two classmates, point guard Andrew Nembhard and shooting guard Noah Locke, to push UF alongside Kentucky as the league's only team to start at least three freshman. The trio has basically been out there since and figure to be prominent again Thursday when eighth-seeded Florida (17-14) faces ninth-seeded Arkansas (17-14) in second-round play of the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena, as the Gators look to build on a postseason resume that needs further padding if the NCAA Tournament selection committee is going to take a second look their way.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's comprehensive "Pregame Stuff' setup here]
Freshman forward Keyontae Johnson(and his 41-inch vertical leap) brings the hammer against Charleston Southern in his UF home debut back in November.
Before UF entered SEC play, Johnson was averaging 17.8 minutes per game. The start of the SEC was a few days after that meeting of the minds (coaches, parents and player). In the 19 games since, Johnson is at 25.2 minutes per, plus 7.9 points, a team-high 6.5 rebounds and has shot 44.3 percent from the floor, which rates second-best among the half-dozen players logging at least 20 minutes per game.
In the Gators' Jan. 9 regular-season meeting against the Razorbacks at Fayetteville, Johnson played only 12 minutes, took two shots, grabbed three rebounds and did not score. He'll be a more notable factor this time. He'll need to be, but then again, so will all the Gators. Their postseason fate (whatever it might be) depends on it.
"We need to bring the energy we had when we won those five games," Johnson said in reference to UF's five-game winning streak — that included back-to-back road victories at Alabama and No. 13 LSU — that gave way to a disappointing three-game losing skid to wrap the regular season. "If everyone does their job, we'll be fine."
It was back in the summer of 2015, the offseason when White replaced icon Billy Donovan, that the new UF staff got its first look at Johnson. The program hosted an elite camp of mostly 15- and 16-year olds. Johnson blended in with the crowd, but didn't necessarily standout.
That also was the case the next few times they saw Johnson, especially when he was playing at Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy on a roster that included Trevon Duval (who signed with Duke), Emmitt Williams (LSU), Silvio De Sousa (Kansas) and Isaiah Stokes (UF). After a year there, Johnson transferred closer to home, to Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy, where he got more time and more exposure, but was the second-best Johnson on the team, behind Keldon Johnson (Kentucky).
When Florida assistant coach Jordan Mincy attended a practice there in September 2017, though, he was instantly struck with how much Johnson had improved.
"He was handling, rebounding and taking off on dudes," Mincy recalled. "I called Coach [White] and said, 'We have to offer this guy right now!' He said, 'You sure?' I said, 'I'm positive.' We offered him that day."
Johnson signed two months later. Turns out, he'd spent time as a youngster at Naval Station Mayport, just north of Jacksonville, Fla., where his parents were stationed. He'd grown up a Gator fan. Florida had been his dream school all along.
It was time to live the dream.
Since arriving on the Florida scene, Johnson has been asked to parlay his stunning athleticism (which starts with a 41-inch vertical leap) and length into a package of attacking the rim, rebounding, solid defense and effort. He did so with mixed results early on. Examples: three points, three rebounds, three turnovers in just 14 minutes in a loss to Oklahoma in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas; five points, three rebounds, two turnovers against Butler in the same tournament; then six points, five rebounds in just 15 minutes against No. 10 Michigan State; 10 points, eight rebounds in 19 minutes of a rematch with Butler.
The latter game, one of his better all-around performances in the non-league schedule, came just after that sit-down in the coaches' office.
"They all said I had a different attitude after that," Johnson said.
Two weeks later, he had a different job description. After his finest game of the season to that point — 11 points, four rebounds over 25 minutes — in a road loss at No. 25 Mississippi State, Johnson got his first career start the following game at Georgia. He scored 11 points and cleared four boards over a career-high 32 minutes, but just as impactful to Johnson's role that day was the season-ending knee injury suffered by power forward Keith Stone early in the second half.
With Stone down, the Gators didn't just need Johnson, they had to have him. Lots of him and the best of him.
"From that point, he took advantage of an opportunity," White said.
Johnson has been there since. Along the way, UF has used the past two months to preview its future. It's a promising one.
"I looked at their roster … and they start three freshmen," said Kentucky coach John Calipari, seemingly surprised, after his team's 66-57 win Saturday.
Nembhard (32.2 per game), Locke (26.4) and Johnson (22.2) rank first, third and fifth on the team in minutes, respectively. Nembhard was named to the SEC's All-Freshman Team this week, but his classmates have been in the middle of everything the Gators have done. Individually, they've had some really good games and a few on the opposite spectrum. It's been that way for the better part of the season, but it's also been the story of the team.
"I never could have envisioned our three freshman starting," White said in retrospect.
Then again, the trio no longer sees themselves as freshmen.
"I think we've moved past that," Nembhard said.
That Johnson has discovered how to keep his motor constantly humming— and thus moved past the one thing he was told was holding him back — has been one of the most encouraging developments of this inconsistent season. Though foul trouble limited him to just 11 minutes at Kentucky, Johnson scored 15 points in 35 minutes the game before against LSU and three weeks earlier tallied 14 points and 13 boards at Alabama, the most rebounds by a UF freshman since Al Horford grabbed in 15 in 2005, and the first Gator since Dorian Finney-Smith in 2016 (a senior, by the way) to amass at least 13 points and 13 rebounds in the same game.
Those aren't the numbers of a kid just jogging up the court. Those are the numbers of a coachable young player finding his way and making an impact.
He won't be jogging Thursday at Bridgestone. The Gators would love that to be the case Friday (and into the weekend), as well.
"Once you hit the conference season, everybody is good, everybody has good freshmen, and everybody has expectations," Johnson said. "I know the coaches have high expectations for me, so I should have high expectations of myself, too. I really just feel like one of the older guys now."
