CHICAGO – Ohio State’s Puff Johnson has seen the mountaintop in men’s college basketball.
Two years into his career at North Carolina, Johnson had shaken off an injury that cost him nearly a year’s worth of games and played his way into first-year coach Hubert Davis’ rotation as the postseason approached. With a 24-9 record, the Tar Heels earned a No. 8 seed in the 2022 NCAA Tournament and weren’t projected to make it outside of their pod in Fort Worth, Texas.
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Instead, North Carolina shocked No. 1 seed Baylor in the second round, igniting a run that saw the Tar Heels achieve an all-time rivalry win on the way to a hard-fought, 72-69 loss to Kansas in the national title game. Johnson played in all six games of that run, chipping in 11 points and six rebounds against the Jayhawks.
Standing inside Ohio State’s locker room after a 71-67 loss to Michigan on March 13 in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, Johnson pondered what it was that allowed that North Carolina team to put together a run that included defeating rival Duke in the Final Four in the last game of Mike Krzyzewski’s coaching career.
These Buckeyes? Johnson sees some similarities to those Tar Heels.
“Just like you saw tonight, like you’ve seen in the last couple weeks, we can play with anyone,” he said. “That’s the thing, especially when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. That’s what makes a team dangerous. Once you’re in the field, it doesn’t matter rankings, it’s roll the ball out and you’ve got to win 40 minutes.”
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On March 19, Ohio State will play its first NCAA Tournament game in four years after earning a No. 8 seed. The Buckeyes will face No. 9 seed TCU in Greenville, South Carolina, where a win will most likely draw a second-round showdown with overall No. 1 seed Duke.
Puff Johnson played in all six games of North Carolina’s 2022 NCAA Tournament games. The Tarheels lost to Kansas in the championship game that season.
As the only active player on Ohio State’s roster with March Madness experience, Johnson has the best idea of what the Buckeyes are getting themselves into. The memories of that run with the Tar Heels come back to him every week, Johnson said, and he remains on a group text with that 2021-22 team.
“It was everything,” he said of that postseason. “I hope we understand here that no matter what, these are memories that are going to last a lifetime. One day, basketball will stop, but you’ll always have the memories of what happened that day.”
Ohio State guard Puff Johnson is guarded by Michigan’s L.J. Carson on Jan. 23.
Johnson occupies a unique spot in men’s college basketball history. That Final Four game between Duke and North Carolina was the first time the two rivals had ever faced each other in the NCAA Tournament, and he played nine minutes while helping erase a 41-34 Blue Devils lead a little more than a minute into the second half.
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Then on March 13, he suited up for the Buckeyes as they played rival Michigan in the postseason, giving him a taste of two of the biggest rivalries in all of sports.
“Ohio State-Michigan, it’s electric, but the UNC-Duke one is on another level,” he said. “It’s two basketball schools, and the competition has always been so close. When we played [Kryzewski] in the Final Four, it’s something that at least once a week, sometimes maybe two, three or four times, I’ll get reminded of it from UNC fans about the run we had and retiring ‘Coach K.’
“That rivalry’s on another level for basketball.”
Now, as he prepares for the final games of his college career, Johnson said the Buckeyes are trending in the right direction to make an extended run in the NCAA Tournament.
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“Coach [Jake Diebler] alluded to it in early February,” Johnson said. “He said that teams at this time of year, they either go up or they go down. They’re getting better or they’re getting worse. At least since I’ve been here, I feel like we’re playing one of our best brands of basketball. We’ve just got to keep it rolling.”
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Puff Johnson likes Ohio State’s trajectory as March Madness begins
