Kristi Johnson The Definition Of A True Point Guard
12/18/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 18, 1999
Dan Manoyan
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MILWAUKEE - When Kristi Johnson was a little girl growing up in Holmen, her morning routine would include brushing her teeth, combing her hair and doing a two-basketball dribbling drill.
After school it was off to the gym with her father, Gary Johnson, the boys' basketball coach at Holmen High School, to hang around and work on her shooting.
That is how a shooting point guard is made.
The theory goes that like a good basketball referee, point guards are at their best when they are unnoticed. This is the age of specialization and role playing, and point guards exist to break presses and distribute the basketball.
They are noticed, so the theory goes, only when they commit a turnover.
Shooting the ball? It's not in the job description.
Except at Marquette.
"My only problem with Kristi is getting her to shoot the ball more," said Marquette women's basketball coach Terri Mitchell of her sophomore guard. "She's our third option on offense."
Considering that Marquette's first two options are All-American candidates, seniors Lisa Oldenburg and Abbie Willenborg, that is not a bad place to be.
"The thing Kristi doesn't understand is what a great shooter she is," Mitchell said. "She concentrates so hard on running the team and getting the ball to everybody else that she doesn't look for her own shot.
"The thing is she has an unbelievable shot and that opens things up inside for the others. When she is hitting, the other teams' guards can't double down inside. It opens things up for everybody."
Indeed, those afternoons in the Holmen gym were not misspent. Johnson is Marquette's best long-range shooter, converting 38.5% (15 of 39) of her three-point attempts this season while averaging 9.0 points per game, third best on the squad.
Oddly, Johnson has no qualms about taking her shots with the game on the line, but she is hesitant to shoot early in the game. That is something that Mitchell would like to change.
"I want her to take her shot early in the game, not just at the end," Mitchell said. "She has to realize how important that is to opening things up inside."
In Marquette's last game, a 75-67 loss at Syracuse, Johnson made 4 three-pointers during a five-minute stretch late in the game, but only one three-pointer the rest of the game.
"When we get behind, Kristi takes it upon herself to try to shoot us back in it, but we can't get her to take that shot early," Mitchell said.
"I really can't explain it," Johnson said. "I just don't shoot early in the game for some reason, but I like to take the shots with the game on the line."
Johnson demonstrated that recently in the Golden Eagles' 74-71 victory over Brigham Young. After missing two free throws in the final minute that allowed BYU to take a brief one-point lead late in the game, Johnson came right back with a three-pointer on Marquette's next possession that sealed the victory.
"I was just glad that I had the opportunity to make up for missing the free throws," Johnson said. "I would have felt terrible otherwise."
Hours before that game, Kristi had gone to the Bradley Center with her father to work out some problems with her shooting stroke.
"I hadn't shot around with him for a long time, so it was a really good thing," Johnson said. "It made me relax. He told me what I was doing wrong - I wasn't completely squared up to the basket - so that helped me relax."
Confidence never has been a problem for Johnson, not even when Mitchell turned over the keys to her upperclass-dominated squad to the unproven freshman before the 1998-'99 season even began.
"We could have gone two ways - work her in gradually or give her the ball," Mitchell said. "We gave her the ball and decided to grow with her."
Obviously the decision paid off for Mitchell and the Golden Eagles, who went 21-8 and won the Conference USA regular season championship.
"I was nervous, but my coaches and teammates made me feel comfortable right away and that took the pressure off me," Johnson said.
"If there was any skepticism (from Johnson's teammates) about playing her right away, it went out the window in a hurry," Mitchell said. "She established herself by her work ethic and after a couple of weeks into the season, I'm sure the others were saying 'Yeah, she's legit.' "
Though Johnson led Holmen to a state championship in her sophomore season, she didn't come to Marquette with a big reputation because she spent her summers working at youth basketball camps at home rather than traveling to the national AAU camps to showcase her own talents. But she was no secret in western Wisconsin, nor to Mitchell, who followed her high school career closely.
Johnson acknowledges the contribution her father made to her basketball career, but claims it was her brother Brian, three years her elder, who was the driving force.
"My brother saw that I had some talent, so he wanted to help me," Johnson said. "He was the one who would make be get up at 6 a.m. and dribble the ball. He told me I was going to be short, so I'd better learn how to dribble the ball.
"I learned how to shoot, hanging around my dad's practices and playing games against my brother and his friends. I guess it's paying off now."