– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — Eighteen years on, Texas head coach Rodney Terry is experiencing déjà vu on the sidelines, and all because of an 18-year old basketball prodigy.
What could have been a tricky in-season tournament for the Longhorns, beginning their first tour of duty in the SEC, turned into a championship in Brooklyn, as Texas took out two schools located within close proximity of the Big Apple in a span of 48 hours — Syracuse and, on Friday night, Saint Joseph’s — on the shoulders of freshman phenom Tre Johnson, whose 33 points combined in the two games earned him the UKG Legends Classic Most Valuable Player Award.
Six of those 33 points came in the final 3:14 of tonight’s win against the Hawks when the game was still in the balance, and his drive and free-throw line jumper with 1:20 remaining was the dagger as Texas won its first in-season tournament since the 2020 Maui Invitational that took place in Asheville, North Carolina, due to COVID.
It’s been all of five games, but Johnson, 6-foot-6 swingman who was the No. 1 recruit out of the state of Texas and one of the top recruits in the country for the class of 2024, is a natural under the spotlight, from his 29-point game in his collegiate debut against Ohio State in Las Vegas to his exploits in the bright lights of New York. Throw in the fact that both Syracuse and Saint Joseph’s clearly had the advantage against the Longhorns in terms of vocal support in the stands, and Johnson felt right at home.
“I had lots of fun playing in this type of environment, especially on the road,” Johnson said. “Most people people won’t say that, but I have fun playing on the road, especially [during] different runs and different stuff like that.”
Natural scoring talent. A sinewy body that contorts whichever way to create space for shots and drives to the basket. A quiet moxie. Sounds like another player from yesteryear that Terry once came across and coached while an assistant under Rick Barnes in Austin during the 2006-07 season.
“Well we had a guy named Kevin Durant,” a chuckling Terry said when asked if Johnson reminds him of anyone he’s seen as a freshman. “We had Kevin for one year. Kevin and Tre, they have a lot of similarities with some things. The work ethic. Extremely high work ethic. These guys, they’re in the gym. They’re elite at their shooting. … He’s an efficient, elite scorer, and it comes easy to him. Kevin, the same kind of way. You look up and you’re like they’re not playing very well but they have 28 points in the game. [Tre’s] that same kind of guy. He can get them in bunches. He’s a confident player who trusts his work and the process in terms of what he does everyday.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday evening’s game, with photos taken by New York-based photographer Jordan Bank. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 35 pictures in total.
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