If he stays at Colorado, Isaiah Johnson already is well on his way to putting together one of the most prolific basketball careers in Buffaloes history.
If he stays.
Thatap the big question surrounding all of the Buffs, whose season ended with a first-round loss against Oklahoma State on Tuesday in the Big 12 tournament. Yet the biggest key for possible optimism surrounding next year’s club is the fate of Johnson, author of the highest-scoring freshman season in team history.
“I’m just going to take my time away from basketball this offseason for a little bit,” Johnson said after the loss to Oklahoma State. “I’ll talk to my friends and family and see what it is going forward.”
“I’m proud of the way I handled my ups and downs my freshman year. I feel like I stayed pretty consistent throughout the games and practices, so I’m pretty proud about that.”
Johnson broke Alec Burks’ CU record for points by a freshman (512 in 2009-10) while scoring a season-best 28 against No. 2 Arizona in the regular season finale. After scoring 14 in the loss against OSU, Johnson pushed his season total to 540 points. Not only is that total the top mark by a CU freshman, but it ranks 20th all-time overall.
Johnson shot .486 overall and .378 on 3-pointers, and those numbers didn’t lag too much against the more challenging competition of Big 12 play, as Johnson finished .464 overall and .358 against Big 12 foes (including the Big 12 tournament). Johnson averaged 2.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists — he averaged 3.5 against Big 12 foes — and led the Buffs with nine 20-point games. He also shot .821 at the free throw line.
Johnson’s scoring average of 16.9 ranks fifth in the program’s 16 seasons under head coach Tad Boyle, trailing Burks (20.5 in 2010-11), KJ Simpson (19.7 in 2023-24), Derrick White (18.1 in 2016-17) and Askia Booker (17.2 in 2014-15).
“The sky’s the limit for Isaiah. There’s no doubt about that,” Boyle said. “Isaiah’s a warrior. He’s a great teammate. He’s given everything he’s got this year. He’s in unbelievable company when you look at the guys he passed from a scoring standpoint. Chauncey Billups. Richard Roby, one of our all-time leading scorers. Alec Burks, who had a 13-year career in the NBA. And Isaiah had a better scoring year (as a freshman) than those guys when they were Buffs.”
Boyle said he would conduct his year-end, one-on-one interviews with the players this week that typically reveal who is planning to leave, and who is planning to stay. Given Johnson’s consistency — he scored 24 points against Montana State in the season opener, and scored 28 against Arizona to close the regular season — he is almost certain to have more lucrative options if he opts for the transfer portal. The Buffs need the bulk of its rotation to return in order to take another step forward in the Big 12, but getting Johnson back has to be priority No. 1.
“I believe these guys that we have here, and the amount of returners that we have, we’ll definitely be one of the top teams in the Big 12,” CU guard Barrington Hargress said. “Thatap what we’re looking to do. We’re just going to keep on building and be that.”
