Glory Johnson

Johnson's issue in this game was slowing down. She didn’t need to be her quickest or her fastest to get by people on the offensive end. Because she wasn’t scoring easily, it seemed she was trying harder which sped her game up some. The Showtime did an excellent job of fronting her and keeping a body on her to keep her from catching the ball on the block. Most of Johnson’s damage came in transition and attacking from mid-range around the high post, facing up. She had some lightening quick right-to -eft crossovers that nobody could get in front of; on a couple of possessions, she struggled to finish with the bump with her left hand. The way she attacks and extends with her left hand gave me the impression that they usually drop and perhaps the morning game was simple an aberration.

On the defensive end Johnson was fantastic guarding the much bigger post from Showtime. She used her quickness to get in front, her length to shrink the post entry passing lanes and she kept a low base to maximize her strength against a player that outweighed her. Most probably notice her quickness in jumping passing lanes and getting her hands on passes in on-ball defensive situations but in this game her team needed her to play against a very good post player and she did extremely well showcasing her versatility, work ethic and natural athleticism in the face of a tough loss.

During its evening game against the Fairfax Stars, the Tennessee Team Pride seemed like a completely different team. The entire team came to play, which lessened the load for Johnson. Fairfax has quite a few players with good length and quickness thatmade getting to the basket was going to be more of a challenge from the perimeter. Fairfax had two very tall front court players in the middle to contest shots as well. Johnson had her perimeter shot working in this game and she chose on several occasions to pull up from 16 or so feet as the defense sagged into help on the dribble penetration.

Defensively, Johnson again impressed me with her understanding of halfcourt team defense. Rarely in these all-star, club team settings do you see the attention to detail on defense that you do on the offensive end. Fairfax runs a lot of offensive sets and they used a lot of baseline screens to free up their post players, especially Chay Shegog. Johnson was typically guarding the player setting the screen to free Shegog nd she showed help to deter the quick pass while her teammate fought through the screen to reclaim position. If her teammate got stuck she would not only show help but do what every coach loves, and that’s bump the cutter to impede her progress and buy her teammate another half second to recover.

Johnson's athleticism also showed she doesn’t have to be right on top of a player to block their shot. She blocked a couple of perimeter jumpers while being five or six feet away from the shooter. Almost as if she suckered them in to thinking they could get it off just so she could smack it out of the sky. Her defensive effort and smarts impressed me greatly.

In both games she showed that she is a legit elite player worthy of the praise.

Note: This story is an example of evaluation-type pieces that will be available to Platinum Members in the near future.

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