South Carolina Gamecocks star Raven Johnson is once again in the Final Four as the program is just two wins away from making her a three-time national champion. Recently, a Gamecocks assistant coach revealed an interesting detail and how Johnson lived up to her promise.
Assistant Wendale Morrow shared an X post where he mentioned that Johnson asked him about his goals last summer. Morrow wanted to go to his first Final Four and Johnson promised they would go to Phoenix. Here we are with South Carolina scheduled to face UConn in the NCAA Tournament.
Similar to this, Johnson also made a promise to her Westlake High School coach, Hilda Morris Hankerson. Even as a freshman, Johnson was confident in her abilities, promising the head coach to “help these seniors win a state championship.”
“When we were passing out uniforms to all the kids, Raven walked past me and said, ‘I’m going to help these seniors win a state championship,'” Hankerson said. “You don’t have many freshmen talking like that. And she was the starting point guard.”
Despite being just a freshman and Westlake having six seniors to deal with, Hankerson gave her the starting point guard slot.
“And that sounds exactly like Raven, to take charge like that and say, ‘I’m going to do this for them,’ not for selfish reasons, but for her teammates,” Hankerson added. “I mean, what kind of freshman says that? I’ve never had a freshman speak to me like that. She said, ‘I’m going to help these seniors win a state championship.’ Because we had never won one. Our teams had been really good through the years, but we had never won the championship. And we won the first one her freshman year. Then we continued to win.”
Raven Johnson Announced Sacramento 4 Regional MOP
Raven Johnson’s display in the ongoing NCAA Tournament received recognition on Tuesday as she was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Sacramento 4 Regional. The announcement came after Johnson led South Carolina into the Final Four after defeating TCU 78-52 in the Elite Eight on Monday night.
Johnson’s value lies in her defense, often tasked with guarding the best player of the opposition. This season, she has averaged 14 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists.
It remains to be seen how she manages to take South Carolina ahead in the tournament.
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