Jaquan Johnson

Going back to BYU from Kentucky, I think he's going to get a lot of scoring opportunities for the Cougs.

Jaquan Johnson at Iowa State, it sort of depends on the Tame and Lipsy eligibility, but really good player from Bradley last year.

And then Finley Bizjack at West Virginia, just a tenacious, fun player from his time at Butler.

I think he's going to do good stuff for Coach Hodge and the Mountaineers.

I mean, you think about You know, you know, obviously Torre is going to be out until around January, maybe mid-January.

But man, Jaquan Johnson is now a Cyclone.

He's the NVC Defensive Player of the Year last year.

Leon Vaughn was an all first team defensive player at UNI last year.

But it's, it's fun to think about, you know, the, the possibility of Lipsey joining this team because man, they, they need a ball handler.

And you, Torre goes down right early in the, the, or late in the fall, fall practices.

And, you know, you've got Jaquan Johnson, you know, that will probably pick that role up.

But I mean, you add a guy like Lipsey to help take some pressure off of him, you know, this team can...

Whether you have Lipsy or not, it is a brutal blow because Torre was very productive as a freshman last year and was expected to take a sophomore leap this year.

But if you're adding Lipsy to a group that, again, was still very talented even before Torre went down, you add him to a transfer class that includes Bradley's Jaquan Johnson.

And Northern Iowa's Leon Bond.

And Robert Morris is Ryan Prather Jr.

Like, entering the season right now, they don't have a guard on the roster with high major ball handling experience this season.

So I'm bullish on Jaquan Johnson's ability to do that.

I think Ryan Prather Jr. can do it a little bit.

I think that Trey Singleton is a good playmaking passing forward.

I still think Iowa State has the dudes to get a lot done.

I think Jaquan Johnson can probably fill in.

The biggest thing really here is depth.

Does Iowa State have the depth to.

stay in a lot of these games because you know early on in the season you're playing at the players era you're playing some big time opponents early on and um I I don't know for sure that Iowa State is going to win all of those games anymore I felt pretty confident about that before I I'm not saying that Jaquan Johnson is like not nearly as good as Killian Torre I think they're different players and so it's not like we're going to take a huge step back with Jaquan, if it is Jaquan Johnson that takes over the spot.

With Jaquan Johnson on the floor, it's not like Iowa State got significantly worse.

It's just that from a depth standpoint, with no Christian Wiggins, no Killian Torre, What does that rotation look like at the guard position especially? So that's the semi-concerning thing.

I think the positive is that Jaquan Johnson is still a very intense guard.

Because right now, Iowa State can't.

And you got to hope Jaquan Johnson is as good as people are saying he is.

And that's just, that's tough.

Yeah.

on the list.

They get Jaquan Johnson, who came to Ames from Bradley.

Draw Gibbs Lawhorn, who transferred from UNLV to Texas Tech.

Isaac Seliskop, who transferred from Yale to Baylor.

Last season, he led the nation in double-doubles, averaging 17.7 points per game and 11.3 rebounds to earn all MAAC first-team honors.

Gillespie is projected to start alongside returning forward JoJo Tugler.

To replace program stalwart Taman Lipsy, Iowa State landed another scrappy two-way guard in 5'11 junior Jaquan Johnson from Bradley, Nicknamed Bully for his bruising style, Johnson averaged 16.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 2.5 steals and was named MVC Defensive Player of the Year in 25-26.

For the Cyclones to remain a Big 12 contender and preserve their identity as a defensive juggernaut, they'll need Johnson's transition into the high major level to go smoothly.