Johnson Doesn’t Get the Point

Generally speaking, nothing good ever seems to happen to USC point guards during the offseason.

Two years ago, sophomore-to-be Ryan Francis was fatally shot in his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and All-Pac-10 player Gabe Pruitt was declared academically ineligible for the first semester. Last year, Daniel Hackett received the bad end of an O.J. Mayo elbow and subsequently suffered a broken jaw.

Now Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times is reporting that sophomore Angelo Johnson is leaving the team because Coach Tim Floyd refused to guarantee him a spot in the starting lineup.

“He asked me with O.J. [Mayo's] departure if I could guarantee him a spot in the starting lineup,” Floyd said in an interview. “I told him, ‘Angelo, you’re going to play a bunch and could start on 95% of the teams in the country, but I can’t guarantee you that. I don’t think it would be fair to our new players coming in to guarantee anything to anybody.’ … He’s made his choice and is going to explore his options.”

Johnson, who started 11 games and averaged 4.5 points and 2.1 assists, last season, was primarily used as a backup to Mayo and Daniel Hackett. With his departure, Hackett and sophomore Donte Smith are now expected to receive the bulk of the playing time. It’s not anticipated that either freshman Romeo Miller or junior walk on Ryan Wetherell, will get much court action.

While Johnson’s departure makes the Trojans extremely thin at point guard, it reveals even more about the instant gratification of modern athletes. Floyd never once told Johnson that he would not be able to start and get a ton of minutes, but by simply suggesting that he wanted an open competition for the starting spot was enough to make Johnson bolt. Since when does Johnson or any other player become entitled to have a guaranteed role or position on the team.

Johnson’s sense of entitlement highlights one of many differences between the basketball programs at UCLA and USC. In Ben Howland’s program, which has produced three consecutive Final Four appearance, Darren Collison waited behind Jordan Farmar and Russell Westbrook played a reserve role for Aaron Afflalo before either one was able to excel in the starting lineup. Neither player insisted on starting right away, as they both put a greater emphasis on the team’s goal of winning an NCAA Championship. In the end, their unselfishness produced great results, as the Bruins won a Pac-10 title, Westbrook was selected fourt overall in the NBA Draft, and Collison returned to school before being projected as a fourth round pick.

It’s time for the USC basketball players like Johnson and Davon Jefferson, who went undrafted, to start taking a more unselfish team approach like Collison or Westbrook.