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 if you’re taking part in for a program that’s synonymous with successful, the usual is even increased. 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 workers, nonetheless to take action after the workforce gained the 12 months 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 recreation 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 gifted roster that included a future first-round WNBA draft decide in Kamilla Cardoso, they have been additionally outfitted 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 informed us for the quilt of SLAM 250, reasonably than having “balked” for minutes or taking part in time, they carried themselves with grace, have been guided by veteran management and confirmed up each recreation with a can’t-lose mentality that, finally, turned a actuality.
“It bought tougher each stage within the competitors,” Johnson informed us in Might, only a month after the title recreation. “We performed Texas A&M twice, most likely, and within the common season, in comparison with within the SEC match, that was a complete totally different workforce. So simply, the competitors, and the truth that everybody was both successful or completed—I feel the extent of competitors grew so much it was far more bodily. You needed to be in your A recreation. The preparation is essential and I feel our coaches did a superb job of mentally making ready us in addition to bodily making ready us. And likewise, the leaders on my workforce, the older individuals, they informed us what to type of count on. MiLaysia [and I], they informed us simply to play our recreation, overlook the large stage or no matter.”
As all the world watch Staley’s squad energy their approach by the NCAA match, the Nationwide Championship was the head 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 each time the second referred to 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, taking pictures 63 excellent from the sector, however she was completely fearless.
Fearless is a phrase the Minnesota-native resonates with on an excellent deeper, religious stage.
“Earlier than the video games, I pray as a result of I play for God on the market. Apart from the truth that I play for South Carolina, my household and my teammates, I actually play for God. I symbolize Him on the court docket and so I pray to simply ease my thoughts, give me peace, and I pray for the opposite workforce, [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 follow 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 inventive 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 accurately, 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 workforce and felt that she had so much 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 know the way 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 eager to be a “dream service provider” for younger individuals. What she noticed from Johnson, and others on the workforce, was simply that: an unwavering confidence and willingness to study and be guided. “Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I may play with the very best 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 informed WSLAM. “Really, the children simply allowed the older gamers to information them to the purpose the place they have been so assured getting into the basketball recreation that they knew that they have been going to make an influence.”
It’s that sort of assist 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 very best.
“You at all times wished to be a dawg,” she chimes in and says to Tessa throughout our interview. “The perfect at no matter they have been doing. If you labored onerous, you wished to be the primary one completed with one thing. You wished your journaling in school to be higher than the opposite children. Not in a nasty approach, 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 together with her, the 6-0 guard is so charismatic on digicam, she completely wants her personal tv present at some point), Johnson’s capability to faucet into that stage of competitiveness each 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 wish to do higher than what I simply did. So, like, at all times getting higher on daily basis is what motivates me.”
Johnson noticed herself having the ability elevate her recreation to that stage in Columbia. After averaging 6.6 factors in her first 12 months, she’s now centered on not simply elevating her recreation bodily this summer season, however is much more centered 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 damage. Johnson returned as a junior and helped her workforce emerge as runner-up to the state title, and by her senior 12 months, she led her squad to its first state title since ‘09, dropping a double-double within the championship recreation. “I really feel extra like, highly effective on the market as a result of I went by that and I’m again now,” she informed Kare11 Information in 2022.
At the same time as an NCAA champion, Johnson seems like she will approve her psychological strategy much more. “Sure, I must work on all my bodily stuff and simply my abilities and fundamentals however I feel basketball is a really psychological recreation,” she says. “Me with the ability to overcome all my errors and simply having a development mindset and with the ability to take heed to whoever’s making an attempt to assist me. I feel that’s what I must get higher at.”
How precisely does she plan on going about that? “That’s a superb query. Getting deeper into my religion,” she explains. “I feel that at all times helps and that’s what I do on daily basis. I attempt to construct a greater relationship with God. However, going about it, I feel I simply must at all times take moments out of my day and simply replicate on myself and consider what I must do higher and what I’ve overcome basically as a result of it’s a must to suppose constructive. I do know for me generally that’s onerous 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 somewhat unfavourable with myself. Like, the truth that I wish to be higher than my yesterday self. That helps me.”
As for a 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 ladies’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 should deliver that very same power 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 season. And faculty is over, so we’re pondering of subsequent season, simply figuring out and getting higher as a result of groups are going to scout us tougher and play us tighter. [They’ll] know extra of the little issues that we do. So, that’s type of the mindset.”
Pictures through Getty Photographs. Portraits by Evan Bernstein.
