Jerry Johnson earned his nickname with his best talent in basketball.
In a five-game span at Notre Dame Preparatory School in Massachusetts, the 6-foot-2 Johnson scored 35 points in each game. Coach Ryan Hurd walked in and gave Johnson the nickname “Buckets,” one he still uses on his social media.
But the confidence with which he plays came long before the nickname.
“You have to have the confidence that when you step out on the court, you feel like nobody can guard you,” the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior guard said recently. “No matter how good a team you play, how good they are or their school name, you can’t care about none of that as long as you have that confidence.
“That came from back home in Memphis, where you had guys who were good at the time. Now that I’ve grown up and developed my body, those guys aren’t as good as me now. Having that confidence took me a long way.”
With 55 games of NCAA Division I experience in two seasons at Fairfield University, Johnson – a coach’s son – is the most experienced player on the Mocs’ roster this season. He averaged 9.8 points with 105 3-pointers during his time at Fairfield, with 28 double-figure scoring games. Those included three 20-point performances, led by a 26-point game at Iona in 2017.
Johnson called the leadership aspect “second nature” on a UTC team that has seven players who never have played in a Division I game before. He knows he’s on a young team but refuses to consider that an excuse, noting that the Mocs have a lot of guys who have “played a lot of basketball.
“They’ve done a lot of things in their respective careers that they know what to do,” Johnson said.
With so many new guys regardless of experience, the team has embraced the likelihood it will be considered one of the worst in the Southern Conference in the preseason – especially coming off a 10-win season last year that led to major turnover.
The Mocs are an unknown entity. They know that, and in a sense that excites their leader.
“No doubt,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of guys from different parts of the country – Wisconsin, Colorado, Maryland area, Chicago – that you’re not going to think too much of the guys from far out, because they’re not local kids or surrounding states, so this team will shock a lot of people.
“To see different guys go off every couple of nights, it’s going to be fun to see.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.