IU senior captain Xavier Johnson is struggling, and the outside world is just piling on
BLOOMINGTON – Xavier Johnson is walking off the Assembly Hall court, slowly shaking his head, towel between his teeth. His IU basketball team has just been blown out by Purdue at home, where the most unforgiving segment of the fan base is subtly turning on the Hoosiers, but there is nothing subtle about what is happening to Johnson.
He is not playing well, and the home crowd was punishing him for it Tuesday night — in the arena and on social media, where the real heroes among us go to change the world with emojis, snark and LOL’s.
Imagine being Xavier Johnson, for a moment. Two of the biggest blessings in his life, a scholarship to play for IU and a bonus sixth year granted by the NCAA, have led him to this moment. If he had to do it over again, knowing how things are turning out, would he have come to IU from Pittsburgh after the 2020-21 season? Perhaps. He played on NCAA tournament teams in 2022 and ’23. Can’t take those for granted.
But knowing what he knows, would he have returned this season? Can’t imagine that. Turning pro after last season, applying for a passport and living just fine in a foreign country, would’ve been better than this.
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Xavier Johnson has seen the good, bad and ugly of college sports. He has played a starring role for the IU basketball program at the most important time of the season, back in 2021-22 when he averaged 14.2 points and 5.9 assists and shot 41.4% on 3-pointers in the final 17 games. He was at his best in the 2022 Big Ten tournament, averaging 16.7 ppg and setting the IU record with 22 assists in a single conference tournament. He has excelled in school, earning a spot on the ACC Honor Roll when he played at Pittsburgh, and has played in the NIL era, earning whatever princely sum an IU basketball player makes these days.
Johnson has seen the other side, too. Some of it, sure, he has brought on himself. Maybe even most of it. But things are spiraling now, with his play erratic and his behavior problematic and the visceral, volatile IU student section piling on. And don’t get me started about the reaction on social media, where cretins go to unload and college athletes, powerless to stop themselves, go to look.
Along comes a story like the one you’re reading here, and some folks who haven’t thought it through — not you — will wonder:
Why are YOU writing about it?
Answer: Because I don’t like where this is heading. Some people see a problem, and look the other way.
How about we try something else today?
Fix this, Mike Woodson
IU coach Mike Woodson has no idea what to do with Xavier Johnson. In his defense, who would? At his best Johnson is the top point guard on roster, an honorable mention All-Big Ten pick two years ago after averaging 12.1 points and 5.1 assists. At his worst? It’s not good.
Put it like this:
Since returning earlier this month from the foot injury that sidelined him for seven games, Johnson is averaging 4.4 points, 1.8 assists and 2.6 turnovers. In these five games he is shooting 21.7% from the floor (5-for-23) and 28.6% on 3-pointers (2-for-7).
Much like the end of the 2022 season saw Johnson spiraling upward, playing his best ball late in the regular season and then topping that in the Big Ten tourney, he is heading the other way now. He is averaging a career-low 7.7 ppg and 2.1 apg, and this is a career in its sixth season mind you. Over the course of the past three games he has more flagrant fouls (two) than field goals (one). He has been ejected once. He has lost his starting job.
Woodson has replaced Johnson in the starting lineup with freshman Gabe Cupps for the past two games, a win against Minnesota and the loss to Purdue. He has tried talking up Johnson in the media, saying he played winning minutes against Minnesota, when that wasn’t true. In a 12-point victory, Johnson managed a plus-minus of a minus-13 in 17 minutes. Johnson followed that Tuesday night against Purdue with a minus-20 in 19 minutes.
In summary: In the past two games he is a team-worst minus-33 in 36 minutes. And that doesn’t include what happened three games ago, when he was ejected from the loss at Rutgers — he was 1-for-4 from the floor, with five turnovers and two assists — after hitting a Rutgers player between the legs.
Tuesday night brought his second flagrant foul in three games, a forearm shiver for no discernible reason to Purdue center Zach Edey.
After the game, nobody asked Woodson about Xavier Johnson. Similarly, the day before the Purdue game, nobody asked Woodson if his struggling sixth-year captain was returning to the starting lineup.
We’re all just avoiding the topic.
How’s that working out?
Assembly Hall has turned on Xavier Johnson
One obvious solution: Xavier Johnson needs time away.
Maybe the injury, which he has described as “a crack in my foot,” hasn’t healed. Maybe whatever happened to him physically has undercut his confidence to the point that he’s not the same player, mentally. A smart young man, don’t get me wrong — you don’t luck your way onto the ACC Honor Roll — but something clearly is wrong, and if it’s not his body, well, what else could it be?
Problem with obvious solutions: They don’t dig deeper. Some of us need the structure, the routine, of our regular lives. Hey, raising my hand here. At the most difficult times of my personal life, all of which have come since my divorce coincided within three days of my move here in 2014, the structure of this job has been my salvation.
What to do with Xavier Johnson? Let’s start with what we can control, and this is just so pointless because nobody’s listening — and the people who need to hear this the most, they’re not reading. They’re too smart for websites like this one, learning about the world from their TikTok, YouTube and Facebook feeds, which serve up a diet of the same self-serving stuff, the messages so consistent that these people don’t even know how lost they are.
Not you.
But put it like this: If I’m Mike Woodson, I’m thinking hard about sitting Johnson to continue to rehab his cracked foot. If not, and I’m IU athletic director Scott Dolson, I’m finding a way to spread the message to IU fans — the students, mainly — to leave their point guard the hell alone.
Every time Johnson misses a shot, you can feel the frustration, the panic, as the Assembly Hall crowd murmurs loudly. When he turns it over, the noise takes on a more ominous, rumbling sound. Against Minnesota, after Johnson committed two turnovers midway through the second half and was pulled from the game, the crowd cheered loudly when he was replaced by Cupps. Does the crowd always greet Cupps with such reverence?
Not. Even. Close.
Bud.
Johnson's relationship with the crowd was so good in 2022, when he was playing well and the Hoosiers were winning. After they beat Maryland and the players were running toward the locker room to celebrate, a young kid wanted a photo with Johnson and he skidded to a stop to make it happen. The kid was beaming, and you should've seen the dad.
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As he sat on the bench against Minnesota, aware of his disintegrating play and possibly aware of the crowd’s reaction, Johnson stared between his feet or off into the distance until Woodson put him back in the game for the final minutes.
Tuesday, Johnson spent the final 2½ minutes against Purdue on the bench, then rose and joined the IU handshake line. He followed his teammates off the court, shaking his head and biting on a towel and surely — hopefully — finding safety in the sanctitude of the home locker room.
Mike Woodson has a struggling program on his hands, one not likely to reach the 2024 NCAA tournament, but he should have a more pressing concern: his point guard, his captain, navigating the toughest stretch of his career in a time and place where empathy has gone to die.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Inside IU guard Xavier Johnson's erratic play, unraveling composure
