MINNEAPOLIS — This was the game Wildcats fans waited almost two years to see.
It was Ben Johnson vs. Northwestern. The star transfer taking on the spurned former team. One-time teammates squaring off on the court.
But in the end, the game wasn’t about that at all. Johnson had just four points — all in garbage time — and played only 15 minutes in the Golden Gophers’ 76-60 victory.
“I was just making sure we won,” Johnson said, “because if we didn’t, I would have heard about it.”
When Johnson transferred from NU to Minnesota during the summer of 2001, many looked toward his first game against his former team as a chance for NU to show Johnson he made a mistake; that he should have stuck it out with coach Bill Carmody and built a winning program in Evanston.
In a way, it was easy to be upset two years ago. For the second season in a row, young talent was leaking out of Welsh-Ryan Arena. Johnson’s departure wasn’t the mass exodus of a year before — when four players transferred — but Johnson was arguably the best player on NU’s roster at the time. He led the Cats in scoring his freshman season and was second behind Winston Blake during his sophomore campaign.
On the other hand, it was hard to blame the guy for leaving. The Minneapolis-native wanted to play closer to his family and childhood friends. He also wanted to be part of a “guard-oriented and up-tempo” offense, as Johnson described the Golden Gophers when he transferred.
The people who had the most right to feel betrayed — NU basketball players — say they harbor no hard feelings toward their former teammate. For them, Saturday’s game wasn’t a chance for revenge, but an opportunity to see an old friend.
Senior forward Jason Burke says he still talks to Johnson frequently. Last weekend, Johnson called Burke to talk about NU graduate Napoleon Harris playing in the NFL playoffs.
“We were watching the Raiders game,” Burke said, “and he called me about Napo’s hit.”
Junior guard Jitim Young has a lot of fond memories of Johnson. When Young was a high school senior in Chicago, Johnson helped him decide which college to choose — even though Johnson later decided it was the wrong choice for him.
“Ben was half the reason I came to Northwestern,” Young said.
During the 2000-01 season, Johnson helped keep the team loose during an arduous 11-19 campaign.
“In practice one day, everybody was mad and upset,” Young said. “Ben said, ‘What are you, girls or something? Is June (Olkowski) your coach or is Carmody your coach?’ He was just a hilarious guy.”
Johnson decided to leave after that season ended. He and his friends at NU knew Spring Quarter was the last chance they’d have to spend time together.
“We still lived in the same apartment,” Burke said. “It wasn’t until the summer that we really realized he wasn’t going to be here.”
Last year, while Johnson was sitting out an NCAA-mandated one season for transferring from one Division I school to another, NU compiled a 16-13 record — its best since 1982-83. Although Johnson said he never regretted his decision to leave, he was pulling for his old team.
“I was rooting for them, especially toward the end of the season,” he said. “It’s a shame they didn’t get to the NIT.”
The Cats didn’t forget their old teammate, either.
“Every day I thought about Ben,” Young said. “I thought with him, we might have done a little better.
“He was part of that team. In the locker room, we’d say, ‘Remember when Ben used to do this …’ or ‘Remember when Ben said this …'”
Young still thinks about Johnson all the time.
“The room he lived in, I live in now,” Young said. “That’s my bit of Ben memorabilia.”
And although Johnson said he was able to focus on Saturday’s game without getting caught up in NU nostalgia, that might not be the case when the Gophers visit Welsh-Ryan on Feb. 19.
“When we go to their place, it might be a different story,” he said.
