How South Carolina’s Meechie Johnson became more than just a scorer

If Meechie Johnson’s South Carolina career is boiled down to a single play, it should be this.

Eight seconds left. Tie game. Ball in Johnson’s hands. A defender meets him just past midcourt. He accelerates forward, slices through two bodies and charges into the paint.

Six seconds left. Five. Texas A&M’s 6-foot-7 forward greets like a brick wall. Greedy guards would fling up a silly heave. Johnson contorts his body left, dodging the wall. Then he flicks the ball around that wall, a one-hop bounce pass into the hands of South Carolina’s Zachary Davis, who would not be more open if he was 10-feet tall, for an easy layup.

Davis was the hero. Johnson was the winner.

“They won off that play,” said Meechie’s uncle, Julius “Juby” Johnson. “Meechie had it going. He could’ve easily pulled up and shot it from deep, and they live and die with that shot.”

Of course they do. No South Carolina player has epitomized the Gamecocks’ one-year turnaround from a 20-loss team to one of the most intriguing squads in the NCAA Tournament.

The Ohio State transfer was one of the first people to commit to Lamont Paris in 2021, one of the first people to buy into Paris’ vision for the Gamecocks.

Two years later, Johnson is South Carolina’s leading scorer — which probably isn’t a fact his dad wants touted.

LeBron James connection

Perhaps it is ironic: Even as Meechie Johnson Sr. steered his son away from the clout-chasing, status-saving parts of youth basketball, the attention followed. Meechie Jr. never played on some Nike or Adidas circuit, but suited up for his dad’s AAU squad, with kids from around the area. He did not play for a basketball academy, but for a public school, Garfield Heights, coached by his uncle Sonny.

But the attention came because he was labeled as LeBron James’ “nephew.” Back in the day when James was the top high school prospect in Ohio, Meechie Sr. was No. 2. They kept up. Meechie Sr. would train in the summer with the Cleveland Cavaliers. They’d visit each others. They still call and chat. And as the younger Johnson grew up, James was along for the ride — always there to talk with and help.

Perhaps not as ironic: Like Johnson, the indelible image of James’ NBA career is a block, not a shot.

After just two high school games, Johnson became famous as a scorer. A get-a-bucket-anywhere-any time player. Which is fine until that’s all people think you can do.

How’s this for hype: Sitting courtside for Johnson’s first game at Garfield Heights back in 2017 was James, Dwyane Wade and J.R. Smith. And somehow his second game garnered more publicity. A few nights after three stars showed up, the 6-foot Johnson dropped 50 points. And this wasn’t a garbage-time clinic. The freshman knocked down eight triples and willed Garfield to a 89-83 win.

From then on, Johnson was known as simply a scorer. Meechie Sr. knew his son was much more than that.

“So,” Meechie Sr. said, “I put him back on my AAU program that I had just so I could reprogram him back into, you know, making people around him better.”

Heck, Meechie Sr. would record every game. He and his son would have at-home film sessions breaking down the tape. To take it further, when they were playing the NBA2K video game together, Meechie Sr. took it as an opportunity to teach Johnson to play off ball screens and how to run an offense.

And Meechie Sr.’s AAU team was not stacked with the top prospects from the region. It was a bunch of kids from the area who Johnson grew up with. Good players. Hard workers. But not five-star prospects who had college coaches clamoring for them. The goal was development.

“It was just letting him know, it’s not just about scoring, scoring, scoring,” Meechie Sr. “It’s about rebounding … Sometimes I had a pad and somebody else had a pad, and he used to run through the pad to rebound. A lot of tough love.”

Tough love doesn’t work for everyone. Some welter with tough love. Some take it as motivation. So many basketball players talk about “the doubters” and “the haters,” which can be incredibly broad and oftentimes mean some random dude on the internet just trying to stir the pot. And, yet, the criticism fuels them.

For much of his son’s basketball life, Meechie Sr. was the source of that criticism — and it pushed his son for the better.

“He never let me feel like I was good,” Johnson said of his dad. “In AAU, I used to go put up 30, 45 points and you’d think you’re gonna come to a workout and have praise. But he’d kick me out of the gym or tell me I’m not good.

“It was a mental thing. I’m not saying it works for everybody. But for where I got to, it worked for me and I always appreciate him for that.”

Basketball bonding

There’s a famous story that former BYU star and NBA lottery pick Jimmer Fredette used to drive around to different prisons in New York to play basketball against inmates. No better way to acclimate to hostile environments and scoring against bigger guys than stepping inside a penitentiary.

Johnson did not play in any prisons. But Meechie Sr. made sure to put his son in adverse situations to truly make sure he was improving. Scoring is fickle, Meechie Sr. would say. Some days, you can’t miss. Some days, you can’t make a shot. But how can you dominate a game without scoring a bucket.

“I would make him play sometimes,” Meechie Sr. said, “in open gyms and tell him, ‘You’re not allowed to shoot this game. Move the ball. Make people better.’ ”

Now, Meechie Jr. watches his son at South Carolina and doesn’t get the most excitement from his son scoring 30 points in a game. He loves the game where Johnson’s shot isn’t falling, but he still racks up rebounds and assists, plays stellar defense and helps the Gamecocks to victory.

During an eight-game stretch in the middle of SEC play this season, Johnson scored in double figures just twice. But he still averaged over four rebounds and four assists a game while the Gamecocks went 6-2

Now, that’s not to say Johnson was gung-ho about his dad’s methods. His thoughts back then?

“This dude is tripping. Why can’t I shoot the ball? Why can’t I do certain things?” Johnson said. “But as a father, him doing those certain types of things, (I) look back and I’m like, it did work, it did pay off. Especially at this level, because people do struggle. People do go through slumps.”

Added Johnson’s uncle, Sonny: “The bond they have — what he put into him — it’s at an elite level. It’s why Meechie (Jr.) is who he is.”

Meechie stays determined

One needs to understand Johnson’s upbringing, because it’s the only way to grasp how he’s made it this far.

He entered high school as a YouTube star with LeBron’s name always circling him. Then, barley a week into his high school career, he dropped 50 points and whatever expectations on his shoulders grew to boulders. And he seemed to embrace it all.

“He came in with a lot of hype, the biggest buzz around him since probably LeBron coming into high school,” Sonny Johnson said. “He loves the lights. And more important than liking the lights, he likes people.”

He was again stellar as a sophomore, but in the final week of the regular season, he dribbled down the court and planted wrong. He felt something tweak in his knee. He came out for a second but finished out the rest of the game. A few days later, in the regular-season finale, Johnson went up for a layup and the pain was excruciating.

A doctor quickly confirmed Johnson tore his ACL and MCL. His family started thinking perhaps the tear actually occurred days earlier, which would mean he somehow finished a basketball game on one leg.

“Not just tough,” Sonny said. “It shows his love for the game. He was gonna do whatever it takes to win.”

As he was going through rehab, too, his grandfather, William “Pops” Johnson, was battling cancer. Pops was a longtime pastor at Harvest Time Evangelistic Ministry. All of his kids and grandkids grew up around the Cleveland church, which meant they all learned how to play the drums in case the church ever needed help.

When Pops passed away in April 2023, Meechie Sr. took over as pastor of Harvest Time and Johnson began wearing a warmup shirt that read, “I play for Pops.”

In between that, Meechie Jr. started college at just 17 years old. In a twist, Ohio State reached out to Johnson late in 2020. The Buckeyes began the COVID-shortened season playing well, but several of its guards had gotten injured. They needed bodies.

So they asked Johnson if he would consider reclassifying and joining the Buckeyes right away. He was already planning to graduate early, so that wasn’t an issue. But there were many debates whether it was the right idea to start college basketball so soon.

“This was the craziest thing I had ever heard,” Meechie Sr. said. “My main thing is, I didn’t want him to go to college and sit down, because he had just sat for a year and a half.”

But Johnson loves challenges. It’s why he went to Ohio State, suiting up for the Buckeyes before his official high school graduation. It’s also why he believed that he and Paris could help turn around South Carolina. It’s why he believes the Gamecocks are bound for the Sweet Sixteen, starting this week.

At this point, it’s hard to doubt Meechie Johnson.

March Madness: Pittsburgh Regional schedule

• No. 3. Creighton vs. No. 14 Akron, 1:30 pm Thursday (TNT)
  
  

• No. 6. South Carolina vs. No. 11 Oregon, 4 pm Thursday (TNT)