Akienreh Johnson’s goal for the Michigan women’s basketball season was to work on her defensive game.
The Wolverines were in a team room recently when coach Kim Barnes Arico announced the Rogers High School graduate was named to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team. Johnson said her team was just as excited, if not more excited than her, because everyone knew how hard she worked for the achievement.
Goal accomplished.
“I want that person that I'm matching up against to go, 'Oh, shoot, I have to do something. I have to bring something else to this game, because AK isn't going to let me make anything easy,’” she said. “So just getting that respect aspect on the defensive end is a goal that I really try to accomplish this year.”
Johnson and the Wolverines will take on Florida Gulf Coast in the first round of the NCAA tournament Sunday at 3 p.m. at the UTSA Convocation Center in San Antonio. Michigan heads into the tournament as the No. 6 seed in the Riverwalk Region, its highest seed in program history. The winner will go on to face No. 3 Tennessee or No. 14 Middle Tennessee State.
After an injury limited her to just 10 games her freshman year, Johnson was granted an extra year of eligibility. As coronavirus shut down the 2020 NCAA tournament, Johnson discussed the possibility of retuning for her fifth year with her father and Barnes Arico, before making the decision to return.
“I need just one more year to be able to establish myself,” Johnson said, “and to play with the amount of confidence that coach Arico knew that I had.”
Johnson, who has started every game this season, is third on Michigan in scoring (10.8) and second in rebounding (6.5). Her season high was 19 points March 6 against Northwestern. She ranks 13th in the Big Ten with a career-best 76.3 free-throw percentage.
The past few seasons, Barnes Arico has looked to Johnson give the Wolverines an emotional boost.
“She’s stepped up to that challenge,” Barnes Arico said after a game last season. “I think she understands what it takes to be successful, and that’s playing with a certain type of intensity and a certain type of fire. It doesn’t mean just shooting the basketball and scoring a ton of points, but we need to establish ourselves with that kind of fire and energy.”
Before even entering high school, Johnson committed to play for the Wolverines. Then she was a standout player at Rogers, where she was the Ohio Division II Player of the Year in 2015. She tore her ACL in the state playoffs that season.
Johnson’s had some up-and-down moments with the Wolverines. During her freshman year, she tore her ACL for a second time, and in her junior year, she broke her hand.
As a sophomore, she helped Michigan make its first NCAA tournament in five years.
The Wolverines made the NCAA tournament again in 2019, when Johnson averaged 5.6 points and 3.3 rebounds. She scored 12 points in the second round against Louisville.
Last season as a senior, Johnson played in all 32 games, scoring in double figures 14 times with four 20-point games. She averaged career highs in points (10.3 ppg), rebounds (6.5 rpg) and minutes (31.8 mpg).
This year's Michigan team had nine games postponed and one canceled. As a co-captain, Johnson helped the team stay optimistic during the delays in the season, and she admitted at times she also felt the negative toll of postponements, but her teammates were there to help pick her up.
“I had to tell everyone, remind them to stay positive and to remind them that we're doing this for a reason, and it's a bigger picture,” Johnson said. “...So I was able to kind of be that positive voice and get that positive attitude.”
Her teammates have taken notice of her leadership skills.
“She’s grown into a great, great leader,” teammate Amy Dilk said after a game last season. “She has the ability to use her voice. It’s tough sometimes, when you’re in the motion of the game, and you’re thinking about 20 different things, you like lose your voice sometimes. AK mastered that, and her voice on the court, she’s a great leader, she’s a great vocal leader.”
Johnson went through senior night in Ann Arbor on March 6.
Just like her final home game, Johnson isn't focusing on this being her last NCAA tournament.
“I got real emotional when it finally hit me,” she said. “So I'm just trying to take it game by game and not really think about it much.”
First Published March 20, 2021, 12:31 a.m.
