Ken Johnson

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Here's a feature from the local paper, the Columbus Dispatch. Johnson
shouldn't be a factor at 10 or 11, but maybe at 22... Mark


After running eight lengths of the court in a campus gym last week, Ken
Johnson's legs were beginning to melt. Before each down-and-back, he had
bounced the basketball off the backboard, caught the rebound, passed to an
outlet man, hustled to the other end of the court, finished the fast break,
turned and done it again. 
A reporter watching the workout wrote "10'' in his notebook, thinking
Johnson was about gassed and surmising it would be a nice round number to
finish on. Johnson might have been wishing the same. 
"First round, Kenny. First round,'' shouted Ohio State assistant coach Dave
Spiller, who is whipping Johnson into shape for the NBA draft. "C'mon,
Kenny, this is the difference.'' 
So down and back Johnson went again. And again. Ten became 12 became 16
before it ended after 20. 
"We never did 20 in practice,'' Johnson said after fetching a squirt of
water from a bottle. "But this is good for me.'' 
The Buckeyes' 6-foot-11 shot-blocking savior the last four seasons takes his
first step toward the next level Tuesday when he travels to Phoenix for the
Desert Classic, a five-day evaluation camp for 40 college seniors out to
prove they deserve to be among the 58 players taken in the June 27 draft. 
"I'm extremely nervous,'' Johnson said. "It's a good feeling, though,
wondering, 'Am I ready enough? Do I have what it takes to go out there and
dominate?' '' 
It's expected that Johnson will be Ohio State's first first-round choice
since Jim Jackson in 1992. The athleticism and vertical leap that Johnson
has for someone his size, combined with his innate ability to change
opponents' shots, heightens his potential, and the NBA draft increasingly in
recent years has weighted potential heavily. 
"I think guys would probably take a chance on the potential,'' Ohio State
coach Jim O'Brien said, "and there's enormous potential.'' 
The 20 "suicides'' Johnson is running during hourlong workouts several days
a week were designed to help him show teams what he can give them in the
meantime. The drill came at the suggestion of longtime NBA assistant coach
Dick Harter, now a consultant for Octagon, the McLean, Va.-based athlete
representation firm with which Johnson recently signed. Harter, having
scouted countless camps through the years, knows as well as anyone what
potential employers will be looking for from Johnson. 
Can he run the floor? 
"His biggest thing was to try to get Kenny improved from a conditioning
standpoint,'' Spiller said. "They're going to want to see if he can rebound
some and run the floor and beat guys down the floor. 
"Everybody's going to be there trying to make money and improve their stock,
so you don't know how many touches he's going to get on offense. He's at the
guards' mercy in this thing. That's why he has to show conditioning, stamina
and athleticism.'' 
He also will need to show toughness. It came and went in Johnson's four
years at Ohio State but was more evident this season when teams attacked him
at both ends of the court. 
"Teams were playing him more physical and really coming at him,'' Spiller
said. "He has to go into Phoenix with the same type of posture he had then,
just totally focused on what he has to do, not distracted. He can't have
lapses where he loses his focus. There's only a small margin of error now.''

Johnson also plans to show scouts a side of his game they haven't seen. 
A fixture in the low post at Ohio State, for now at least he is being
projected more as a power forward than a traditional back-to-the-basket
center. At 235 pounds, Johnson won't hold up physically against the likes of
Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning. He could, however, develop along the
lines of a P.J. Brown, Theo Ratliff or Tyrone Hill: long-bodies who can
shoot over smaller power forwards inside or knock down open perimeter shots
when a stationary post player doesn't get out on them. 
Facing the basket 
Many of the drills Spiller has put Johnson through the last four weeks have
Johnson setting perimeter screens, rolling off them, catching the pass and
facing up to the basket for shots 15 feet and in. Spiller also put together
a 15-minute videotape of NBA offenses so Johnson can familiarize himself
with the so-called "two-man game'' that pervades the league. 
"Coach Spills has always known I can shoot those shots,'' Johnson said. "I
just didn't have the opportunity during games.'' 
More than halfway through one of his nonstop workouts last week, Johnson ran
the pick-and-roll 25 times and made 21 jumpers along and inside an imaginary
arc from the foul line to the left baseline. Doing the same drill from the
right side, he made 18 of 25. 
"Teams have to see he's capable of making those shots on a consistent
basis,'' Spiller said. "When he goes and does individual workouts (with
teams after the Phoenix camp), they're going to put him through a lot of
these drills and chart all of his shots. You have to show a good percentage
on the charts. What we want to do is make sure he can make at least 70
percent. 
"He's been good with that. His whole mind-set is to make shots. He has the
concentration and the focus to do that, and that's going to help him.'' 
New wheels 
With the prospect of a multimillion-dollar contract closer by the day,
Johnson has permitted himself one luxury. A couple of weeks after Ohio
State's loss to Utah State in the NCAA Tournament, he tooled into the
Schottenstein Center parking lot behind the wheel of a Lincoln Navigator, an
options-loaded sport utility vehicle that retails for about $45,000. Gone
was the 1988 Eagle Premier he shoehorned himself into the last 4 1/2 years. 
Other than the ride, though, Johnson hasn't spent a fortune he does not yet
have. 
"I'm not going to do anything that's going to jeopardize me,'' he said. 
That would include not graduating from Ohio State before he takes his shot
at pro basketball. A year ago, he petitioned the NCAA for an extra year of
eligibility as much to complete his degree in art as to play another season
of basketball. If all proceeds according to plan, he will have his diploma
in July. 
"My family would be more disappointed if I never graduated and went pro,''
Johnson said, "than if I graduated and didn't.''