PISCATAWAY – He was, quite literally, the biggest fan in the building for Rutgers basketball’s back-to-the-wall triumph over UCLA Monday night.
At 6-foot-10, with another foot-and-change of hair, Myles Johnson stood out in the crowd. His presence was a reminder of the grit that once lifted the Scarlet Knights from the ashes – and maybe can rescue a season teetering on the brink.
Rutgers’ 75-68 victory was decidedly vintage Steve Pikiell – plus-8 on the glass, plus-5 in blocked shots, sharp elbows, unselfish offense. It was something Johnson, whose defense and rebounding anchored the 2020-21 Scarlet Knights as they ended 30-year NCAA Tournament drought, could fully appreciate. He was in from California to see the first Big Ten battle between his alma maters; he earned a master’s degree from UCLA after four years on the banks.
“This team, I know they’ve had some trouble, but all these kids are new,” he said. “I didn’t learn my screen coverage in three months over the summer. They’re still learning as they go.”
This win was evidence that they have it in them.
Freshman wing Ace Bailey grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked three shots. Freshman center Lathan Sommerville corralled nine boards, including the game-sealing defensive rebound. Transfer forward Zach Martini kick-started a first-half surge with an offensive board that led to a bucket and had his best defensive effort of the season, allowing his man to score just once while posting the game’s top plus/minus of plus-11. Jeremiah Williams and Jamichael Davis moved from the starting lineup to the bench but delivered on both ends while freshman point guard Dylan Harper, who played gusty in his own right coming off nasty flu, sat with foul trouble.
“To win the Rutgers basketball way, the way Coach Pikiell wants, it alerts everyone in the program how this program is used to playing, how we’re used to winning, what these fans are used to watching,” Williams said. “It’s a step in the right direction.”
Williams, a co-captain, said the players came into practice with their heads down after Thursday’s 18-point loss to Purdue – the team’s third straight defeat – and Pikiell pushed the right buttons with a mix of a kick in the pants and a pat on the back.
“It was, ‘We’ve got to figure our (stuff) out,’” Williams said. “So let’s figure it out.”
Johnson’s 2021 team traveled down that road, losing five straight games in January before turning the corner. The current group faces a steeper climb, but Johnson wouldn’t close that door just yet.
“Hold the course,” he said. “This season is not over.”
On Monday he wore a homemade sweatshirt that read “RUCLA.” While he claimed to remain neutral as he sat behind Rutgers’ bench, it’s not hard to discern which school had the bigger impact on him. During his senior season at Rutgers he served an internship with IBM, which eventually hired him. Now he is a firmware development engineer for them, “working on main frames that handle worldwide financial transactions,” he said.
If you go to Costco and buy something, “the inner workings of how the (micro)chips talk to the software running on the screens, I’m right in the middle there,” Johnson explained.
He flew into Jersey Saturday morning. He visited UCLA practice once and Rutgers practice twice (he can’t believe how tall Harper, “this little kid who was running around Rutgers basketball camp,” got). On Monday he ate breakfast with Randi Larson, his academic advisor at Rutgers, who was courtside for the game, beaming with pride at his return.
“Everyone took such good care of him during his time here,” said his father, Rick Johnson, who accompanied Myles on the trip.
Things have changed since he graduated.
“If you would have told me that UCLA would be in the Big Ten and have a conference game at the RAC – I’m not calling it Jersey Mike’s – I would not have believed you in a million years,” Myles said.
Then there’s the lifting of transfer restrictions and school-hopping that’s ensued.
“You’re not going to get that four-year, bonding brotherhood,” he said, name-dropping Geo Baker, Ron Harper Jr. and Caleb McConnell as guys he grew up with at Rutgers. “We learned to play with each other over time. Now people come in for a year and they’re gone. You don’t have time to build those strong relationships that helped us win all those games.”
As he sees it, there’s one constant from then to now.
“Coach Pikiell is a great guy to play for,” Johnson said. “He’ll believe in you – and he’ll instill defense and toughness in you. As a proud person of Pikiell’s vision and leadership, I fully believe in him to figure this out.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
