'A special player': Nate Johnson leads Akron into NCAA men's basketball tournament

University of Akron men's basketball coach John Groce remembers a conversation from four years ago with Geri Brady about a future Zips star.

Groce and Brady were talking about her son, Nate Johnson, a freshman at the time who graduated in 2021 from Lakota East High School in Liberty Township, a suburb of Cincinnati.

Johnson was an All-Ohio second-team selection in Division I as a junior and a senior.

Groce reflected on this conversation Sunday and called it "a great story" after Akron (28-6) was announced as the No. 13 seed in the East Region in the NCAA Tournament.

Johnson, a redshirt junior now, is a big reason why Akron won the Mid-American Conference Tournament in Cleveland last week to advance to meet No. 4 seed Arizona (22-12) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.

"We had talked about redshirting him [during his freshman season in 2021-2022]," Groce said. "He was hurt in the summer, then he got hurt again in the fall, and I'm like, 'Man, he's going to be behind.' So, Nate and I have this conversation, and we are going to talk to his mother, who's a great lady. And her one question for me was, 'Does this mean he gets an additional year of free education?'

"And I said, 'Yes, ma'am.' She goes, 'I'm in.'"

Groce paused and smiled.

"You don't get that very often," Groce said. "She understands it and she gets it. She'll say to me or [Akron associate head coach] Dustin [Ford], like, 'Make sure you're hard on him now.' She wants him coached and she wants education. She cares about the right things. So, yeah, I think about the decision we made to redshirt him — and he and I talked about this [Saturday] on the court at Rocket Arena — and now here he is in 2025 after the decision to redshirt, MAC Player of the Year, MAC Defensive Player of the Year and MAC Tournament MVP. It worked out pretty good for him."

Johnson, a 6-foot-3 guard, is averaging 14.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.8 steals in 29.9 minutes this season. He is shooting 44.7% from the field, including 30.6% from 3-point range, and 79.2% from the free-throw line.

Johnson said his mother now lives in Cincinnati, but regularly attends Akron games.

"The only places she doesn't go are the Michigans," Johnson said Sunday. "Whenever we play Eastern, Western and Central, she doesn't go there. Everywhere else, she tries to travel and make all of the games in Ohio. She has probably only missed one game here [at Rhodes Arena]. Even when I wasn't playing, she would come to the games."

Johnson had three points, eight rebounds, five assists, a block and a steal in 22 minutes in a 96-67 win over Bowling Green in a MAC Tournament quarterfinal. He scored a career-high 31 points and also had six assists, five rebounds, two blocks and a steal in 36 minutes in a 100-90 win over Toledo in a semifinal.

And then Johnson made the game-winning, floating layup with 2.3 seconds remaining to give Akron a 76-74 win over Miami in the MAC Tournament championship game. He finished with 22 points, five assists and two rebounds in 33 minutes, and joined Akron junior guard Tavari Johnson on the All-MAC Tournament team with Miami's Peter Suder and Kam Craft and Kent State's Jalen Sullinger.

"He's the MAC Player of the Year, MAC Defensive Player of the Year, three points in Game 1 [of the MAC Tournament]," Groce said Saturday. "... Then the next game, he has his career high 24 hours later. Same player. Same guy, and he was just as happy that we won on Thursday as he was when he had 31 points on Friday. That's just the way our team's wired. Multiple guys in double figures, different guys, different nights. Bowen [Hardman] led us in scoring [against Bowling Green] with 17. That's just how we roll.

"Nate, obviously, I've said this before, Nate's a stud and he's that way because he plays both ends, defense and offense, and he can rebound offensively and defensively. So there really isn't any area that he doesn't impact, and that's what makes Nate a special player."

The Johnsons, who are not related, both earned All-MAC first-team honors. Tavari Johnson had 14 points and seven assists against Bowling Green last week, and scored 15 points apiece versus Toledo and Miami. He is averaging 13.0 points, 3.9 assists and 1.9 rebounds in 24.9 minutes this season, and is shooting 46.1% from the field, including 39.2% from beyond the 3-point arc, and 91.2% from the free-throw line.

"He stepped up in a big way," Tavari Johnson said Sunday of Nate Johnson. "He was doing everything for us, playing big minutes both nights and didn't wilt at all. He didn't show any fatigue or anything. So, he stepped up in a huge way and he's the player of the year for a reason, defensive player of the year as well. So, he was doing it both ways and it led our team to a championship."

Akron senior guard Seth Wilson added that Nate Johnson "did what big players do."

"They make big-time plays, and that's what he did," Wilson said. "I feel like a lot of our guys did that. ... Mani [Amani Lyles], Tavari, Zay [Isaiah Gray], Bo, James [Okonkwo], Shammah [Scott] — everybody just made plays when it was time to make plays."

Nate Johnson's path to Akron included 13 scholarship offers, including from MAC rivals Kent State, Miami and Ohio, and from out-of-state schools, such as Florida Gulf Coast, Tulsa and Middle Tennessee State.

"I didn't take any official visits because of the pandemic," Nate Johnson said. "Coach Groce was on Zoom and FaceTime. They sold me on Akron on that.

"... It's been a real journey. When I first got here, I really didn't know what to expect. College basketball, everybody is telling me it is more physical and it is faster. You gotta try to be prepared. I came in and I was that freshman turning the ball over. The only thing I could do was play defense. Having the older guys here that were before me — X [Xavier Castaneda], Rique [Enrique Freeman], Ali [Ali], Greg [Tribble Jr.], Mikal [Dawson] — having those guys show me the ropes a little bit, led to the person I am today."

Akron senior guard Evan Wilson added, "it has been awesome to see Nate grow."

"We came in together," Evan Wilson said. "He redshirted and obviously I was trying to learn the ropes as a walk-on. That first year, we were figuring stuff out together. To see him grow into the player he is and make big-time plays on Friday and Saturday in the MAC tournament was awesome."

Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Nate Johnson guides Akron Zips into NCAA men's basketball tournament

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