NC State’s NCAA tournament fate is in Markell Johnson’s hands. Can he deliver?
Markell Johnson threw in a shot from just short of half court at the beginning of N.C. State’s practice Tuesday, not the first time this season at the Greensboro Coliseum he’s connected from international waters. If the Wolfpack was looking for a good omen heading into the ACC tournament, that might be it.
It’s too simplistic to say that as Johnson goes, so goes the Wolfpack, but it’s also not too far off.
At his best — as he was last year in Charlotte in N.C. State’s win over Clemson, or in last month’s win over Duke — Johnson is an explosive, unpredictable and at times unguardable scorer. At his worst, the second-team all-ACC selection can disappear from the court entirely. He can be as dangerous as anyone in the ACC one night, as anonymous as anyone the next.
This has been true throughout Johnson’s entire N.C. State career, but the stakes have never been higher. After getting relegated to the NIT a year ago, the Wolfpack is yet again the bubbliest of bubble teams, its NCAA prognosis entirely uncertain. A win over the Wake Forest-Pittsburgh winner Wednesday won’t help much. A chance to play Duke for a third time Thursday absolutely would.
But the odds are stacked against the Wolfpack if it doesn’t have Johnson at his best, and no one is particularly shy about saying that. When it comes to Johnson, Kevin Keatts and his players don’t mind saying the quiet part out loud.
“I want him to play as an all-conference guard,” Keatts said. “When Markell Johnson is playing really good basketball, we’re playing good basketball. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s got to be the leading scorer on the team. One of the things that’s successful for us is when he passes the ball at a really high level but doesn’t turn it over. When he runs the offense and he’s talking and he’s playing like a senior, those are the things that win games.”
It doesn’t seem like “talking” and “playing like a senior” would be boxes that often go unchecked for a player of Johnson’s caliber, but therein lies the challenge.
It has been an eternal mystery, the yin and yang of Johnson’s talent and what could be called his apparent effort level. In fairness to Johnson, it’s definitely more complicated than that: It’s really more about his engagement in what’s going on around him, as much the degree to which he’s willing to exert his influence on the game as the degree to which he’s able.
The question no one can answer is what will trigger Johnson’s best, although he tends to deliver most consistently when matched up against a more famous player, a Cole Anthony or Tre Jones. It’s sort of the inverse of the Dennis Smith Jr. situation, when every opposing point guard wanted to measure himself against Smith, leading to an unwieldy number of career nights against the Wolfpack.
“Somebody else scoring will get him going,” Funderburk said. “Between me and him, if I start saying something to him, he might play harder.”
From Johnson’s perspective, his best offensive games tend to start at the other end of the court.
“It’s defense,” Johnson said. “When I usually am playing well, I’m in the passing lanes, keeping guards out of the lane, things like that. Playing well for me is having that overall, all-around game.”
And that’s the thing: He has shown, time and again, what he is capable of doing. It’s all there, all the talent, all the tools. Johnson has players around him who have carried the team without him at times, but they’re better when he’s better.
This tournament is Johnson’s last stand. Either he carries the Wolfpack into the NCAA tournament. Or he doesn’t.
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 3:28 PM.
