The life of a freshman basketball player can be quite hectic. Dealing with college-level classes while balancing practices every day is an art that takes most student-athletes time to get used to. The games are also an eye-opening experience. Accustomed to the relative ease of high school basketball, freshmen find themselves ill-prepared for the up-tempo, fast paced game of college hoops.
Most new players also have the luxury of slowly getting used to the game by coming off the bench. They can learn about what it takes to play at a high level for 40 minutes, and as they gain game experience, their confidence rises.
For freshman Amanda Johnson, however, her biggest problem is doing laundry. School has never been a problem for her, but separating the darks from the whites is more of a threat than a UCLA defender.
“I don’t like doing laundry at all,” she says. “My mom’s done it my entire life. It’s just hard. I’m not motivated to keep up on it.”
Johnson’s troubles with dirty clothes is something most college students can relate to. But few can relate to her recent success.
Slowly testing the waters of Pacific-10 Conference basketball has never been an option. Forced into a starting role by injures to senior Rita Kollo and sophomore Nicole Canepa, Johnson has had to speed up the learning curve. Through 12 games so far this season, Johnson has started in 10 of them. She’s second in minutes played with 323 and she’s averaging 26.9 per game. But she says she never expected to be starting this soon in her career.
“Coming in I really didn’t know how much,” she says. “They told me I was going to get some minutes, but I never expected to start. I was just trying to prove myself.”
Her other stats also speak for themselves. She’s averaging 7.9 points a game and five rebounds. Johnson is also the team leader in steals and blocked shots. She headlines a freshman class that’s had to grow up very quickly due to the injuries to Kollo, Canepa, the season-ending knee injury to sophomore Nia Jackson, and shin problems that forced junior captain Taylor Lilley to miss the first six regular season games. Johnson says those injuries have forced the first-year players to assume more responsibility.
“It’s a good thing,” she says. “Although, it’s been unfortunate because we haven’t had a full team to practice with and sometimes that can hurt us from a competition standpoint, but getting those minutes has been great for us.”
The growth from a high school recruit to a starter in the Pac-10 has been quick for Johnson. As a 6-foot-2 forward for MariProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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Carrillo High School in Santa Rosa, Calif., she grew up being the star. Johnson was named the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat All-Empire Female Player of the Year for three consecutive years, 2006-08. As a senior, she led the Pumas to a 28-2 record and a North Bay League Championship.
Her 24 points and 10 rebounds a game also caught the attention of Oregon head coach Bev Smith, who recruited her heavily as a forward who could play the four spot and go outside and shoot or play around the rim.
“She has a great understanding of the game for being so young,” Smith said. “Being coachable and having a great work ethic has helped her make the transition from high school to college basketball.”
The transition still has had its bumps, however. In just seven minutes against Baylor a couple of weeks ago, she had two points and no rebounds. Since then she’s bounced back with eight points against Utah, and 16 points and eight rebounds in the loss to USC last weekend. The inconsistency is something she says is the hardest for her to deal with.
“It happens to freshmen; it’s part of the experience,” she said. “But I hated that feeling. Hating it makes me go out there and prove myself the next game to earn more minutes and feel like you’re contributing to the team.”
The confidence has come from something Lilley said about Johnson during an interview at the beginning of the season. Lilley said Johnson was the best shooter on the team, and although Johnson doesn’t think that entirely true, she says that boost really helped her.
“Someone told her that when she was a freshman,” Johnson said. “That gave her the confidence to take risks and be sure of her ability, and that’s something that has emanated from everyone. They keep telling me to keep my head up, know what I can do and be confident in your ability.”
And with the team’s recent win against UCLA, Johnson feels like the Ducks can turn some heads in the Pac-10. Just don’t ask her to do her laundry.
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Turning heads
Daily Emerald
January 6, 2009
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