Former USC Trojans forward Kobe Johnson turned heads when he officially announced that he was transferring to rival school UCLA, making him the first crosstown transfer since World War II.
Now, the UCLA Bruins have once again secured a massively talented defender who has already been named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team twice.
Johnson has received significant praise from head coach Mick Cronin, saying, “Kobe Johnson’s in a whole different class. He’s with Jaylen Clark as the best two defenders I’ve ever been around.”
“Kobe Johnson’s as good a defensive player as Jaylen Clark, and that’s as high of praise as I can give anybody,” Cronin said to CBS’s Jon Rothstein on his podcast “College Hoops Today” in July. “I think he’s a guy that’s going to get drafted for sure and has got a chance to be Defensive Player of the Year nationally.”
Now, it appears that UCLA guard Dylan Andrews shares that sentiment, albeit from a different perspective.
“The word for it [being defended by Johnson] is annoying,” Andrews said, per Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times.
This means a lot from Andrews, who was the leading scorer for the Bruins last season. Overall, he averaged 12.9 points, 3.7 assists, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.8 steals across 32 games, helping lead UCLA to the Pac-12 Conference Tournament Finals.
Meanwhile, Johnson had a similar effect on the Trojans, except from a defensive standpoint. In his sophomore season, Johnson averaged 9.2 points, five rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 2.2 steals across 33 games, 29 of which he started.
That season, the USC Trojans finished third in the Pac-12 Conference with a 22-11 overall record behind UCLA and Arizona. They were eliminated in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament by Michigan State.
In his junior year, Johnson once again proved to be an integral player, recording 10.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.3 steals, and 2.2 steals across 31 games.
Despite Johnson’s improvement, the Trojans regressed, finishing with a 15-18 overall record in a three-way tie for eighth place in the Pac-12 Conference. After being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament, USC did not qualify for March Madness.
Last season, the Bruins missed the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament as well, ending a 12-year streak for Cronin.
Now, UCLA is looking to make a confident return, and Johnson could be the key to that success.
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