Isaiah Johnson put together one of the top freshman seasons in the history of the Colorado men’s basketball team.
It will be Johnson’s only season with the Buffaloes.
After in another rough season for the Buffs in the Big 12 Conference, Johnson intends to exit CU via the transfer portal, as first reported by On3 Sports on Friday.
Johnson broke Alec Burks’ program record for points in a season, scoring 540 points while playing in all 32 games. Johnson broke the record while scoring a season-high 28 points against No. 2 Arizona in the regular season finale.
Johnson was under-recruited out of Los Angeles, as Colorado’s scholarship offer was Johnson’s , per 247Sports. He produced immediately at CU, however, scoring 24 points in the season-opener against Montana State to record the first of his team-leading nine 20-point games.
Johnson earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors after averaging 16.9 points, the fifth-highest mark by any Buffs player in 16 seasons under head coach Tad Boyle. Johnson shot .486 overall with a .378 mark on 3-pointers, adding an .831 mark at the free throw line. He also recorded an assist-to-turnover rate of 2.09 (96 assists, 46 turnovers), with his assist total ranking sixth all-time among CU freshmen.
Johnson played off the bench through the first 17 games before joining the starting lineup the rest of the way. He and Barrington Hargress had the potential to be one of the most underrated-yet-productive backcourts in the Big 12 next season, but instead Boyle will be forced to replace a huge piece of the rotation via the transfer portal.
When asked about his future at CU following the Buffs’ first-round loss against Oklahoma State at the Big 12 Conference tournament earlier this month, Johnson said, “I’m just going to take my time away from basketball this offseason for a little bit. I’ll talk to my friends and family and see what it is going forward.”
Although Boyle hasn’t commented on the state of the Buffs’ roster going into CU’s appearance on Wednesday in the College Basketball Crown against Oklahoma (6 p.m. MT, Fox Sports 1), Johnson presumably won’t make the trip to Las Vegas.
