Like his rookie classmates, Isaiah Johnson is certain to make a few freshman mistakes.
Johnson’s, however, might be a little less frequent.
Due to the late date of his high school graduation, Johnson was the last of the five players signed last November by the Colorado men’s basketball team to arrive on campus this summer. Yet even with the slightly delayed start, Johnson might have been the first to turn heads.
Johnson wasn’t the most heralded of that quintet signed nearly a year ago but he is trending toward playing a key role this season for the Buffaloes, who open the 16th season under head coach Tad Boyle on Monday at home against Montana State (7 p.m., ESPN+).
Coming off a 14-21 mark that was the worst of Boyle’s tenure, any return to prominence will almost certainly require quick assimilation from a rookie class that grew to seven over the summer. Johnson, a wiry, 6-foot-1 point guard from Los Angeles, .
“Everybody’s so excited,” Johnson said. “Coming here, itap a big opportunity for us, playing in the Big 12. We all just want to come out and prove to people this year is a different team than last year. We’re the freshmen. So we’ve just gotta step up in big moments and be ready. We don’t want to have a season like last year, even though we weren’t here. We just want to come in and win games.”
Johnson grew up as a proverbial gym rat, except in gyms frequented by basketball royalty. His father, Chris Johnson, is a longtime trainer with Klutch Sports, a representation company for NBA players. Johnson’s father counts among his client list NBA luminaries like Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, as well as former CU star KJ Simpson, now in his second season with the Charlotte Hornets.
It was during those workouts with Simpson leading up to the 2024 NBA Draft when Johnson’s interest in CU was cemented. Johnson was the first player from , and he has played his way into being next in line among a group of Los Angeles-area point guards who have thrived for the Buffs, a club that includes Spencer Dinwiddie, Askia Booker and Simpson.
“I don’t like to use the word ‘surprise.’ Because we recruited every single one of these players because we thought they could help this program,” Boyle said. “What I’ve learned as I’ve gone through the years of coaching is you can’t predetermine expectations on them. You can’t put expectations on these kids. Good or bad, high or low. Just give the kid a chance to be a good player and letap see where they are when they get here.
“You look at a kid like Isaiah, I’ll just put it this way — he was way under-recruited.”
Johnson is set to combine with UC Riverside transfer Barrington Hargress to give the Buffs a deeper, more versatile one-two punch at the point guard spot that CU sorely lacked last year. He won’t be the only newcomer to make his Buff debut against Montana State — CU has six other true freshmen, Hargress, Denver transfer Jon Mani, and second-year wing Andrew Crawford coming off a redshirt season — but Johnson’s contributions might prove as critical to any program turnaround as any of them.
“This group, we’ve put in a lot of work over the summer,” Johnson said. “I’m excited to see when it all comes together. It definitely helped me growing up around a lot of people that played the game at a high level. Itap definitely helped with my IQ. Just watching a lot of film, studying a lot of players, just being able to read the game and play at my own pace and not try to get sped up. Especially as a freshman.”
