How South Carolina WBB’s Tessa Johnson rebounded from injury to become a top recruit

It’s not like Tessa Johnson didn’t already appreciate basketball and all that came with it: the wins, the buzzer/-/beaters, the growing attention from top women’s programs nationwide.

But Kent Hamre, Johnson’s coach at St. Michael-Albertville High School in Minnesota, saw a major change in her demeanor in October 2020. And it’s only grown since.

Nearly three years ago, Johnson, a 2023 South Carolina women’s basketball signee, was jogging back on defense in a fall league game when she suffered a freak non-contact injury.

After a trip-up and an awkward landing, she broke her left leg femur bone in a gruesome fashion that, according to Hamre, wasn’t too different from Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware’s infamous 2013 injury. Just like that, Johnson’s promising sophomore season was gone.

Until it wasn’t.

“I learned a lot from watching how she handled that injury,” Hamre told The State. “Sometimes people are, ‘Oh, poor me’ or ‘Why did this happen to me?’ … Never once. She just made it a, ‘Hey, this is God’s plan to make me a better person, to make me a better basketball player.’

“And she found out — and I think even other kids found out — that no matter how good you are, it can all be taken away. That’s the approach she took.”

A week after her season-ending injury, Johnson was shooting baskets in her garage from a rolling office chair. When St. Michael-Albertville’s season started in January, she didn’t miss a practice unless she was in the middle of physical therapy and worked as a student-coach off the bench, offering tips and support. And during her time away, she watched film.

So. Much. Film.

“It was crazy,” Hamre said. “In the middle of summer, or anytime, I’d get a text or call from her. She’d go, ‘Hey, I’ve been watching film on this game from three years ago …’ And I’m just like, ‘How bored are you?’ ”

It was a formative and daunting time for a high school sophomore widely expected to become the next big thing in Minnesota girls’ basketball after Paige Bueckers left to play for UConn. Johnson handled it admirably.

Enough so, Hamre said, that “the injury, I think, was in the long run a good thing for her. It’s not that she didn’t appreciate the game. But I think it gave her even more appreciation for it.”

Tessa Johnson’s basketball journey

Johnson attacked her rehab at a markedly fast rate — although she wasn’t a full go until her junior season the next fall, she was playing summer basketball some seven months after her broken leg — and picked up right where she left off.

Johnson averaged 23.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game as a junior and was a first-team all-state selection as St. Michael-Albertville finished as state runner-up in Minnesota’s largest classification.

Pretty soon, the phone lines that went quiet on Hamre’s end after Johnson’s injury were ringing again, with top coaches across the country calling — and showing up — to check in on the 5-foot-11 guard, who topped out at No. 25 in the espnW’s top 100 rankings for the 2023 class.

Johnson officially visited South Carolina last September and fit right in, she told The State last fall. The four-star recruit committed to coach Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks a month later, choosing them over Baylor and Minnesota.

“Our first conversation I felt comfortable off the bat, like I have known her since I grew up,” Johnson said of Staley in March. “I’m big with trust and I genuinely trust her with my future and taking me where I want to go.”

After locking up her college decision and signing with South Carolina, Johnson had a career year as a senior at St.-Michael-Albertville. She averaged 24.3 points, 6.6 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game and had 27 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in the title game as SMA toppled Hopkins, a longtime state power, to win its first state championship since 2009.

Johnson was also named a McDonald’s All-American and the state Gatorade Player of the Year while setting SMA’s single-game and career scoring records. She dropped 51 points in a game as a senior and finished her varsity career with over 2,100 points at the school 30 minutes west of Minneapolis.

“It’s just the things that she can do on the court late in the game, in pressure situations,” Hamre said. “We’re in the state tournament. There’s four seconds left. Who do you want on the line? Yeah, let’s have Tessa. She hits them both. Pressure doesn’t get to her.”

Hamre expects Johnson, who enrolled at USC earlier this month, to play most of her minutes at shooting guard. And she could make an early impact as a shooter: During USC’s Final Four loss to Iowa this April, in which the team shot 4-of-20 on 3s, Hamre lost track of how many coaching buddies texted him some form of: “South Carolina needs Tessa NOW.”

Johnson’s versatility should also help her, Hamre said. She played lots of point guard for St. Michael-Albertville and is a comfortable ball handler, and she’s got solid height for a guard that should help her on defense — Johnson was 5-11 as a senior but is closer to to 6-foot now.

Those are some of the most compelling qualities Johnson will bring to USC as one of five 2023 newcomers and only the second Minnesota player to letter for the Gamecocks in program history following forward Colleen Frost from 1983-85.

Above it all else is an appreciation for the game Johnson loves and thrives within — even more so following a leg injury that could’ve derailed her but set her on a path to USC instead.

South Carolina WBB 2023-24 newcomers

• F Sahnya Jah, 4-star 2023 recruit

• G Tessa Johnson, 4-star 2023 recruit

• G MiLaysia Fulwiley, 5-star 2023 recruit

• G Te-Hina Paopao, Oregon transfer

• F Sakima Walker, Northwest Florida State College transfer