How do you course of successful all of it? It’s a sense most of us won’t ever perceive, nor expertise: solely the choose few ever win championships, and whenever you’re enjoying for a program that’s synonymous with successful, the usual is even greater. For Gamecock standout Tessa Johnson, the then-freshman had heard all about how troublesome it was to solidify a ‘chip from former gamers and even the teaching employees, nonetheless to take action after the crew gained the yr prior. However after posting an undefeated season, holding their very own within the 2024 NCAA match, they defeated Iowa to win their third title underneath the helm of legendary head coach Daybreak Staley.
The epic showdown drew 18.9 million views, making it probably the most watched basketball sport since 2019. The world noticed not solely how undeniably dominate the Gamecocks are, and have at all times been, however bought a glimpse at simply what to anticipate from the way forward for the sport: with a proficient roster that included a future first-round WNBA draft choose in Kamilla Cardoso, they have been additionally geared up with a core group of freshman and sophomores, together with Johnson, MiLaysia Fulwiley, Raven Johnson and Chloe Kitts, they might’ve simply faltered underneath the strain. As Staley told us for the cover of SLAM 250, slightly than having “balked” for minutes or enjoying time, they carried themselves with grace, have been guided by veteran management and confirmed up each sport with a can’t-lose mentality that, finally, grew to become a actuality.
“It bought more durable each degree within the competitors,” Johnson informed us in Might, only a month after the title sport. “We performed Texas A&M twice, most likely, and within the common season, in comparison with within the SEC match, that was an entire totally different crew. So simply, the competitors, and the truth that everybody was both successful or completed—I believe the extent of competitors grew lots it was far more bodily. You needed to be in your A sport. The preparation is vital and I believe our coaches did a great job of mentally making ready us in addition to bodily making ready us. And likewise, the leaders on my crew, the older folks, they informed us what to type of count on. MiLaysia [and I], they informed us simply to play our sport, overlook the large stage or no matter.”
As your entire world watch Staley’s squad energy their method by means of the NCAA match, the Nationwide Championship was the top of must-see TV. And when the lights have been the brightest, Johnson, who performed probably the most minutes (25) for a freshman, shined just like the star that she is and led her squad with a career-high 19 factors off the bench. To say that she was clutch can be an understatement, Johnson was pure perfection every time the second known as upon her, which was very often. Within the second, she was on the market pulling down silky-smooth midrange jumpers and ending on the rim with ease, and by the third, she was dishing dimes to teammates like Bree Corridor and hitting clutch threes that had everybody in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on their ft.
Not solely was she probably the most environment friendly on the ground, capturing 63 good from the sector, however she was completely fearless.
Fearless is a phrase the Minnesota-native resonates with on a good deeper, religious degree.
“Earlier than the video games, I pray as a result of I play for God on the market. In addition to the truth that I play for South Carolina, my household and my teammates, I actually play for God. I characterize Him on the court docket and so I pray to simply ease my thoughts, give me peace, and I pray for the opposite crew, [too]. [For] no accidents and stuff like that. That calms me down after I get on the court docket. I used to be additionally pondering of the phrase fearless, as a result of, after I was youthful, I might play fearless. [I’d think], Why am I afraid to make errors? Like, everybody’s gonna make errors on the market on the court docket.”
It’s a pregame observe that Johnson’s at all times had as a part of her routine: throughout heat ups, she sits within the fourth chair from the tip. The quantity 4 is a symbolic one for her: a four-star recruit, Johnson wore No. 4 all through her highschool profession as a star at St. Michael-Albertville. It additionally reminds her of her sister, Rae, who rocked it as her jersey quantity whereas hoopin’ at Iowa State, and within the Bible, the quantity additionally represents the artistic work of God, particularly in creating all of life in a four-day span.
“I simply prayed [for] what I felt in my coronary heart,” Johnson provides. “If I bear in mind appropriately, I used to be praying for steerage, for peace [and] for power on the court docket.”
All season lengthy, Johnson says her mindset was to simply belief the method, particularly provided that she was new to the crew and felt that she had lots to study by way of comfortability on the hardwood. “I’m a newbie, I’m not as snug on the court docket, I haven’t performed with them earlier than, so simply belief the method, belief my coaches, and belief myself on the market. As a result of, on the finish of the day, like I’ve labored, I don’t understand how lengthy, I don’t know what number of years, however I’ve labored for it, and simply to belief myself on the market, and believe on the market.”
Then there’s the belief that Staley had in her. Revered for being a “participant’s coach,” Staley has credited her teaching model as desirous to be a “dream service provider” for younger folks. What she noticed from Johnson, and others on the crew, was simply that: an unwavering confidence and willingness to study and be guided. “Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I may play with the perfect of them. Let me get a few of Breezy’s time. Let me get a few of Raven’s time. [But] they didn’t,” she told WSLAM. “Truly, the children simply allowed the older gamers to information them to the purpose the place they have been so assured coming into the basketball sport that they knew that they have been going to make an impression.”
It’s that sort of help that drew Johnson to South Carolina within the first place. Rising up, Johnson was at all times extremely aggressive—her mother, Danielle, who was us in our workplace when Johnson stopped by for a photoshoot—admits that she’s at all times had a craving to be the perfect.
“You at all times wished to be a dawg,” she chimes in and says to Tessa throughout our interview. “The most effective at no matter they have been doing. If you labored arduous, you wished to be the primary one completed with one thing. You wished your journaling at college to be higher than the opposite youngsters. Not in a foul method, however simply that she wished to at all times do her finest.”
Regardless of having a bubbly, upbeat persona, plus a humorousness that’s unmatched (go watch our newest video along with her, the 6-0 guard is so charismatic on digital camera, she completely wants her personal tv present someday), Johnson’s capability to faucet into that degree of competitiveness every time she’s on the court docket is a part of what makes her a star on the hardwood. “I didn’t care what it was, I simply wished to do higher than them. After which, after doing it, one other aggressive piece of me is, I need to do higher than what I simply did. So, like, at all times getting higher each day is what motivates me.”
Johnson noticed herself having the ability elevate her sport to that degree in Columbia. After averaging 6.6 factors in her first yr, she’s now targeted on not simply elevating her sport bodily this summer time, however is much more targeted on her psychological well being. It’s at all times served as a key element of her breakout success, even courting again to highschool when she missed her sophomore season due a damaged leg harm. Johnson returned as a junior and helped her crew emerge as runner-up to the state title, and by her senior yr, she led her squad to its first state title since ‘09, dropping a double-double within the championship sport. “I really feel extra like, highly effective on the market as a result of I went by means of that and I’m again now,” she told Kare11 Information in 2022.
Whilst an NCAA champion, Johnson appears like she will be able to approve her psychological method much more. “Sure, I have to work on all my bodily stuff and simply my abilities and fundamentals however I believe basketball is a really psychological sport,” she says. “Me having the ability to overcome all my errors and simply having a development mindset and having the ability to take heed to whoever’s making an attempt to assist me. I believe that’s what I have to get higher at.”
How precisely does she plan on going about that? “That’s a great query. Getting deeper into my religion,” she explains. “I believe that at all times helps and that’s what I do each day. I attempt to construct a greater relationship with God. However, going about it, I believe I simply have to at all times take moments out of my day and simply mirror on myself and consider what I have to do higher and what I’ve overcome on the whole as a result of you must suppose constructive. I do know for me generally that’s arduous as a result of I’ve such excessive expectations for myself. And so after I don’t attain it, I’m like, I simply get slightly unfavourable with myself. Like, the truth that I need to be higher than my yesterday self. That helps me.”
As for the way life’s been since successful the ‘chip, Johnson admits she’s nonetheless processing. It was a legendary second, one which’ll go down in not simply girls’s basketball—however all of school hoops—historical past, however that doesn’t imply that the grind is over. Because the Gamecocks look to embark on the “Repeat Tour” for the 2024-25 season and run it again, they’ll need to convey that very same vitality after which some.
“[The recognition], it’s good, however then I’m pondering of subsequent season as a result of that’s what we’ve to do,” she says. “We are able to take all of the moments and benefit from the moments. However now, we’re on to summer time. And faculty is over, so we’re pondering of subsequent season, simply understanding and getting higher as a result of groups are going to scout us more durable and play us tighter. [They’ll] know extra of the little issues that we do. So, that’s type of the mindset.”
Images through Getty Photographs. Portraits by Evan Bernstein.
