![]() ![]() Nowell was unable to do that for much of this game and ended up attempting 21 shots. Nowell, the team’s senior point guard, usually piles up assists by driving to the basket and then kicking the ball out to Johnson. Johnson has been so good that he earned first-team All-Big 12 honors and third-team All-America honors this year. This was only the second time he failed to score 10 points all season. It was difficult for K-State to play without Johnson on the floor, particularly on offense. “They did a really good job playing defense against him.” “Our All-American only played 18 minutes,” Tang said. He happened to fall in that 10% that did.” “There is this crazy stat,” Tang said, “that if you sit a guy in the first half with two fouls, 90% of the time they don’t ever pick up their fifth one. Turned out, his early foul trouble was an omen of things to come. “I guess it was just how the game was flowing.” “I didn’t know why I deserved to get two of those fouls on me,” Johnson said. Johnson picked up a foul diving for a loose ball, got another one trying to draw a charge and then fouled out while fighting for a rebound with 2 minutes, 44 seconds left on the clock. Tang assumed Johnson would be able to play carefree in the second half, but that was not the case. I just didn’t want to be hamstrung in the second half if he had three.” If we don’t miss two layups, the game would have been tied at halftime. “The other guys did a good job, and it was a four-point game. “As long as we could keep the game close in the first half, I was OK with leaving him on the bench,” Tang said. Tang wrestled with the idea of playing Johnson with two fouls, but he ultimately decided against it. K-State struggled to keep pace with Florida Atlantic as Johnson watched from the bench and the Owls took a 42-38 lead at the break. ![]() He was a spectator for the next 11 minutes of action and only returned to the game for the final few seconds of the half. Johnson picked up a pair of fouls in the first eight minutes of Saturday’s game, and he was relegated to the bench for most of the remainder of the half. “It backfired on me and I ended up in foul trouble.”įouls have been a concern for Johnson all season, but he had mostly avoided them of late. “I was just trying to play as aggressively as I could and match the intensity that Florida Atlantic brought to the floor,” Johnson said. Then he fouled out with 2 minutes, 14 seconds left in the game. He only lasted 8 minutes, 16 seconds in the first half. Johnson, a senior forward who averaged a team-high 17.7 points per game this season, was only able to log 18 minutes of playing time. Foul trouble threw a wrench into that plan against the Owls. Their usual recipe for success is for both of them to stuff the stat sheet and then get just enough contributions from role players to win. That was terrible news for a K-State team that has leaned on Markquis Nowell and Johnson for the bulk of its scoring this year. ![]()
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