ALEXANDER CITY — As fifth-year Florida guard Zyon Pullin raced down the floor in the second half of the 2024 SEC Tournament title game against Auburn basketball, he set his sights on the rim.
Only one foe stood in his way: freshman point guard Aden Holloway, whose 6-foot-1 stature doesn’t exactly make him a strong interior presence.
The only issue for Pullin was he had no idea how close Chaney Johnson was trailing him. He found out when Johnson emphatically spiked his layup attempt off the backboard. The Tigers collected the loose ball, slowed the tempo down and ran a play that featured Johnson feeding All-American teammate Johni Broome in the post with a pass from the top of the key.
Broome, a lefty, backed his way to the basket and converted a right-handed bucket while falling to the ground. That sequence, involving Johnson on both ends, gave Auburn its largest lead of the game to that point — 17 points — and helped secure its third conference tournament championship in program history.
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With All-SEC forward Jaylin Williams off to the NBA, coach Bruce Pearl wants to see Johnson involved in more plays like that next season.
It’s beyond a want, actually; the Tigers need Johnson to step into the hole left by Williams at the 4.
“I thought Chaney had just a great year last year coming up from Division II, and coming all the way up to high-major basketball,” Pearl said Tuesday at an AMBUSH event. “… You had Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome that sort of carried the load, and so Chaney was sort of able to come off the bench and give us a spark. Now it’s his turn.
“There’s actually going to be as big of an adjustment now, going, ‘All right, let’s do it every night, let’s do it potentially as a starter.’ We’ll see. He’s an incredibly hard worker, he’s in the gym all day, every day. He’s got tremendous discipline in his life.”
Johnson, who spent the first three seasons of his collegiate career at Alabama-Huntsville after starring for Thompson High School near Birmingham, had a tale of two seasons in Year 1 at Auburn. The transition was tough initially, as the hyper-athletic forward scored five or more points just three times over the nonconference slate. His field goal percentage sat at 43.8%.
Over the final 22 games of the season, though, Johnson broke the five-point barrier 14 times, and his efficiency from the field was 53.8% during this stretch. He appeared way more confident, especially in a contest at Georgia in February in which Williams was out with a knee injury. Johnson logged 16 points and four rebounds in the win over the Bulldogs.
“He played some of his best games on the road,” Pearl said. “… I want Chaney to relax and play with confidence and have a little bit more fun. He’s such a diligent worker that I think if he had a little more joy in the game and relaxed a little bit, he’d play even better. I’d take a team full of him, though.”
Johnson is poised to be the starting power forward next season. That’s not set in stone — SMU transfer Ja’Heim Hudson is battling with him at the position — but he’s the runaway favorite. That means more responsibility, and there’s reason to believe he can take advantage of that.
Over the final nine games of last season, Johnson averaged 17.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per 40 minutes. Williams averaged 17.9 points and 6.1 rebounds per 40 minutes over that same span. Their true shooting percentages of 65.8% and 65.7%, respectively, were nearly identical.
That’s the version of Johnson the Tigers need going forward.
“I’m just betting on him because he’s so disciplined in his life,” Pearl said. “He’s such an incredibly hard worker. There’s always been that — he wasn’t highly recruited out of high school, he’s a Division II player. Does he belong? We all believe he does, his teammates and coaches do.
“He’s got to believe it as well.”
Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.