How do you course of successful all of it? It’s a sense most of us won’t ever perceive, nor expertise: solely the choose few ever win championships, and once you’re enjoying for a program that’s synonymous with successful, the usual is even larger. For Gamecock standout Tessa Johnson, the then-freshman had heard all about how tough it was to solidify a ‘chip from former gamers and even the teaching employees, nonetheless to take action after the group gained the yr prior. However after posting an undefeated season, holding their very own within the 2024 NCAA event, they defeated Iowa to win their third title beneath the helm of legendary head coach Daybreak Staley.
The epic showdown drew 18.9 million views, making it probably the most watched basketball recreation since 2019. The world noticed not solely how undeniably dominate the Gamecocks are, and have all the time been, however obtained a glimpse at simply what to anticipate from the way forward for the sport: with a proficient roster that included a future first-round WNBA draft choose in Kamilla Cardoso, they had been additionally geared up with a core group of freshman and sophomores, together with Johnson, MiLaysia Fulwiley, Raven Johnson and Chloe Kitts, they may’ve simply faltered beneath the strain. As Staley advised us for the quilt of SLAM 250, reasonably than having “balked” for minutes or enjoying time, they carried themselves with grace, had been guided by veteran management and confirmed up each recreation with a can’t-lose mentality that, finally, turned a actuality.
“It obtained more durable each degree within the competitors,” Johnson advised us in Could, only a month after the title recreation. “We performed Texas A&M twice, most likely, and within the common season, in comparison with within the SEC event, that was an entire completely different group. So simply, the competitors, and the truth that everybody was both successful or performed—I feel the extent of competitors grew so much it was far more bodily. You needed to be in your A recreation. The preparation is vital and I feel our coaches did a superb job of mentally making ready us in addition to bodily making ready us. And in addition, the leaders on my group, the older folks, they advised us what to form of anticipate. MiLaysia [and I], they advised us simply to play our recreation, neglect the massive stage or no matter.”
As all the world watch Staley’s squad energy their approach by means of the NCAA event, the Nationwide Championship was the top of must-see TV. And when the lights had been the brightest, Johnson, who performed probably the most minutes (25) for a freshman, shined just like the star that she is and led her squad with a career-high 19 factors off the bench. To say that she was clutch can be an understatement, Johnson was pure perfection at any time when the second known as upon her, which was very often. Within the second, she was on the market flattening silky-smooth midrange jumpers and ending on the rim with ease, and by the third, she was dishing dimes to teammates like Bree Corridor and hitting clutch threes that had everybody in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on their toes.
Not solely was she probably the most environment friendly on the ground, capturing 63 good from the sphere, however she was completely fearless.
Fearless is a phrase the Minnesota-native resonates with on a good deeper, religious degree.
“Earlier than the video games, I pray as a result of I play for God on the market. Apart from the truth that I play for South Carolina, my household and my teammates, I actually play for God. I symbolize Him on the court docket and so I pray to only ease my thoughts, give me peace, and I pray for the opposite group, [too]. [For] no accidents and stuff like that. That calms me down once I get on the court docket. I used to be additionally pondering of the phrase fearless, as a result of, once I was youthful, I’d play fearless. [I’d think], Why am I afraid to make errors? Like, everybody’s gonna make errors on the market on the court docket.”
It’s a pregame observe that Johnson’s all the time had as a part of her routine: throughout heat ups, she sits within the fourth chair from the tip. The quantity 4 is a symbolic one for her: a four-star recruit, Johnson wore No. 4 all through her highschool profession as a star at St. Michael-Albertville. It additionally reminds her of her sister, Rae, who rocked it as her jersey quantity whereas hoopin’ at Iowa State, and within the Bible, the quantity additionally represents the inventive work of God, particularly in creating all of life in a four-day span.
“I simply prayed [for] what I felt in my coronary heart,” Johnson provides. “If I bear in mind appropriately, I used to be praying for steering, for peace [and] for energy on the court docket.”
All season lengthy, Johnson says her mindset was to only belief the method, particularly provided that she was new to the group and felt that she had so much to study by way of comfortability on the hardwood. “I’m a newbie, I’m not as comfy on the court docket, I haven’t performed with them earlier than, so simply belief the method, belief my coaches, and belief myself on the market. As a result of, on the finish of the day, like I’ve labored, I don’t know the way lengthy, I don’t know what number of years, however I’ve labored for it, and simply to belief myself on the market, and trust on the market.”
Then there’s the belief that Staley had in her. Revered for being a “participant’s coach,” Staley has credited her teaching model as eager to be a “dream service provider” for younger folks. What she noticed from Johnson, and others on the group, was simply that: an unwavering confidence and willingness to study and be guided. “Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I might play with the most effective of them. Let me get a few of Breezy’s time. Let me get a few of Raven’s time. [But] they didn’t,” she advised WSLAM. “Truly, the children simply allowed the older gamers to information them to the purpose the place they had been so assured coming into the basketball recreation that they knew that they had been going to make an affect.”
It’s that kind of assist that drew Johnson to South Carolina within the first place. Rising up, Johnson was all the time extremely aggressive—her mother, Danielle, who was us in our workplace when Johnson stopped by for a photoshoot—admits that she’s all the time had a craving to be the most effective.
“You all the time wished to be a dawg,” she chimes in and says to Tessa throughout our interview. “The perfect at no matter they had been doing. If you labored laborious, you wished to be the primary one performed with one thing. You wished your journaling at college to be higher than the opposite youngsters. Not in a nasty approach, however simply that she wished to all the time do her finest.”
Regardless of having a bubbly, upbeat persona, plus a humorousness that’s unmatched (go watch our newest video along with her, the 6-0 guard is so charismatic on digicam, she completely wants her personal tv present someday), Johnson’s potential to faucet into that degree of competitiveness at any time when she’s on the court docket is a part of what makes her a star on the hardwood. “I didn’t care what it was, I simply wished to do higher than them. After which, after doing it, one other aggressive piece of me is, I wish to do higher than what I simply did. So, like, all the time getting higher day by day is what motivates me.”
Johnson noticed herself having the ability elevate her recreation to that degree in Columbia. After averaging 6.6 factors in her first yr, she’s now centered on not simply elevating her recreation bodily this summer season, however is much more centered on her psychological well being. It’s all the time served as a key element of her breakout success, even courting again to highschool when she missed her sophomore season due a damaged leg damage. Johnson returned as a junior and helped her group emerge as runner-up to the state title, and by her senior yr, she led her squad to its first state title since ‘09, dropping a double-double within the championship recreation. “I really feel extra like, highly effective on the market as a result of I went by means of that and I’m again now,” she advised Kare11 Information in 2022.
At the same time as an NCAA champion, Johnson seems like she will be able to approve her psychological method much more. “Sure, I must work on all my bodily stuff and simply my expertise and fundamentals however I feel basketball is a really psychological recreation,” she says. “Me having the ability to overcome all my errors and simply having a progress mindset and having the ability to take heed to whoever’s making an attempt to assist me. I feel that’s what I must get higher at.”
How precisely does she plan on going about that? “That’s a superb query. Getting deeper into my religion,” she explains. “I feel that all the time helps and that’s what I do day by day. I attempt to construct a greater relationship with God. However, going about it, I feel I simply must all the time take moments out of my day and simply replicate on myself and consider what I must do higher and what I’ve overcome basically as a result of it’s a must to assume constructive. I do know for me typically that’s laborious as a result of I’ve such excessive expectations for myself. And so once I don’t attain it, I’m like, I simply get somewhat damaging with myself. Like, the truth that I wish to be higher than my yesterday self. That helps me.”
As for a way life’s been since successful the ‘chip, Johnson admits she’s nonetheless processing. It was a legendary second, one which’ll go down in not simply girls’s basketball—however all of faculty hoops—historical past, however that doesn’t imply that the grind is over. Because the Gamecocks look to embark on the “Repeat Tour” for the 2024-25 season and run it again, they’ll must carry that very same vitality after which some.
“[The recognition], it’s good, however then I’m pondering of subsequent season as a result of that’s what we’ve got to do,” she says. “We are able to take all of the moments and benefit from the moments. However now, we’re on to summer season. And college is over, so we’re pondering of subsequent season, simply figuring out and getting higher as a result of groups are going to scout us more durable and play us tighter. [They’ll] know extra of the little issues that we do. So, that’s form of the mindset.”
Photographs by way of Getty Pictures. Portraits by Evan Bernstein.
