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Sophomore Johnson powers Cyclones' recent surge

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By Eric Page | Tuesday, January 29, 2008 | 1 comment(s)

It wasn’t that long ago that Wesley Johnson’s sophomore season appeared lost.

With Johnson, Iowa State’s dynamic sophomore guard, suffering from a badly bruised bone in his left foot in early December, Cyclones coach Greg McDermott was considering pulling his star for the season and applying for a medical redshirt.

It’s a good thing he didn’t.

With Johnson out of the starting lineup and limited to 17 minutes Dec. 5 against Drake, ISU was pounded, 79-44, falling to 3-4 a month into the season. Johnson has started every game since, and the Cyclones have won nine of 11, including a 2-1 start in the Big 12 Conference heading into Wednesday’s game at No. 2 Kansas.

“Wesley is doing a terrific job,” said senior forward Rahshon Clark. “He’s putting the ball in the basket, which is what we need him to do.”

In the past 11 games, Johnson, a 6-foot-7, 210-pounder from Corsicana, Texas, has averaged 14.7 points and 4.4 rebounds. And he has upped his output the past eight games, scoring at a 17.1 clip, including back-to-back 20-point performances last week that earned him Big 12 Player of the Week honors for the second time in his career.

He scored 20 points and pulled down 11 rebounds Wednesday in a win over Missouri and came back with a career-high 24 points Saturday in a win over Oklahoma State.

“It’s a tremendous honor simply because of the great players and great teams in this league,” McDermott said of the Big 12 award. “For him to be singled out is pretty special.

“And he’s not 100 percent yet, which makes it even better.”

That’s the scary part. Johnson, who is making a transition from the frontcourt, where he earned Big 12 all-rookie honors last season, to the backcourt, is nowhere near where he would be had he not been sidelined for more than a month by the injury.

“He’s not totally in shape, and his timing is not totally back,” McDermott said. “We see a few more things every day that we haven’t seen before, and we’re seeing them on a daily basis in practice. He’s coming.”

He’s starting to look like the player McDermott boldly declared “the face” of the Iowa State program at the Big 12 media day in October.

He’s starting to fulfill the potential he has flashed — like when he single-handedly went on a 15-0 run in a 3-minute stretch in a win against Albany earlier this season.

He is regaining his explosiveness to the basket and finding his shooting touch outside.

With him on the court, you get the feeling Iowa State could beat anyone, even — gasp — the unbeaten Jayhawks.

“Wesley Johnson is a great player,” Clark said. “His heart is always in the game, and he doesn’t like to lose. Wes is going to give it everything he has when he’s on the court.”

It’s a good thing he didn’t take that redshirt.

Eric Page can be contacted at (563) 383-2277 or epage@qctimes.com.