Recruiting Report: Keegan Johnson (2018)
Monarch guard Keegan Johnson is a part of a three guard senior group that has high expectations coming into the 17-18 season.
“Our talent returning this year is huge,” Johnson said. “We were very young last year with a few seniors, but the talent returning and new players joining is going to be massive for us.
“Tayelin Jones and Tylor Trihn are amazing players and will be great all season. These two are great players. We are expecting to be dominant at the guard spot and do big things as a team. With the new coaching staff as well, it fits our talents and can get us to a new level.”
Johnson, Jones, and Trihn all played 17u basketball this year with Johnson and Jones competing with the Colorado Titans, and Trihn with the Chaos. It was valuable experience that should make this guard trio even more dangerous.
“In the off-season I played for Colorado Titans Gold 17u through all the sessions,” Johnson explained. “I was blessed to have the opportunity to play under Rick Jimenez and in the program.
“In this time it grew my IQ as a basketball player because going from high school to club is a massive difference, as you know all to well, so I learned how to use my skill and knowledge of the game to keep up as a small guard. These experiences grew me greatly through playing with these players.
“Also, I trained, and still am, with Jerel Seamon to improve my shooting, finishing, and ball handling. This was all individual skill. In June I was limited with my high school team due to surgery for a broken nose, but stayed in the gym all June. For the past couple of months as well I have been working out at Impact and multiple trainers continuously.
“These months have been huge for me in ball handling, finishing, and shooting. I’ve been in the gym a ton.”
Last year Jonson gave his team 11 points a game plus 2.6 assists and a remarkable 3.4 steals a game.
“My Junior year was definitely different, but a learning process for my senior year,” Keegan said. “I started slow in practice, but proved I belonged with a 24 point first game versus George Washington.
“I ended third in scoring on the team and second in state with steals. The team was fun to be apart of but it was an off year considering our record. The other juniors and I learned how to play on the road and in tight games.”
Motivated to have an even better senior year Keegan has worked on becoming a more versatile scoring threat.
“The biggest area of improvement I have focused on from last year until now has been my ability to score. I struggled at times to find ways to score last year, but had other scorers on the team. Without those guys now, I have needed to find ways to score.
“I have worked hard on ball control to get to the rim, playing back to the basket, and hitting open shots from the perimeter. I added new ways to score because I had doubts last year in my ability to score when needed.”
Johnson cares mostly about what happens with his team. All players want to have good seasons in terms of what they give a team but winning is the main goal.
“My individual goals mostly line up with the team goals because the goals I set for myself are solely to help us win. I set the goal for myself to keep up in top in state in steals. Whatever I have to do to help us keep going.
“As for team, we are setting goals all together this week, but I have goals for us to win league. This is a big goal, any many more to come, but as a senior and knowing the team we have, I have big plans.”
A pair of Midwest schools have been in contact with Johnson about college basketball. He’s taken a strong interest in one program that resulted in a fall visit.
“I have been reached out to by Concordia University in Nebraska through letters but that is it,” Keegan told Prep Hoops.
“Also, I received a letter from Wisconsin-La Crosse after the July session and continued talk with them.
“I took a college visit up there in late October to see the facilities, team, and coach. It was an amazing experience so I am interested in their program as well as them in me.”