Penn State forward Aaron Johnson almost single-handedly took the game from Northwestern in a 65-62 Nittany Lions win in State College, Pa., last month. But he spent more than half the game Saturday dangling his goggles between his legs as he sat on the bench.
Johnson, Penn State’s leading scorer and rebounder, didn’t start for the first time this season.
“We just tried to change things up a little bit,” coach Ed DeChellis said. “We tried to get guys that were playing a little better.”
Johnson leads the conference and is 10th in the country with 9.8 rebounds a game. But in the last three games, the junior has six points and 5.3 rebounds.
He has grabbed more than 20 rebounds three times this season, including 21 in the last matchup against NU, when the Cats had 17.
“We prepared for Johnson,” coach Bill Carmody said. “I don’t know exactly what the reason for (his absence) was, but I like it when he’s not in there.”
Johnson, a former walk-on, also averages 12.6 points a game. He said he learned two days before the game that he would not start.
“That’s not my decision,” Johnson said. “But I just have to do whatever coach wants me to do. It’s tough when you’re sitting down, but maybe in the future we just have to work harder in practice and that won’t happen.”
Johnson waited until 10:57 remained in the half before he saw his first action.
Less then two minutes after entering the game, Johnson collected his first rebound. He struggled the rest of the half, as committed an offensive foul going for a rebound, traveled and drew a three-second violation. He ended the half with two points and three rebounds in 10 minutes.
“(His play) was ok,” DeChellis said. “I think we didn’t try to get him the ball enough, he didn’t touch it enough. We talked about the last few days trying to get the ball inside out, we really didn’t do that very well.”
Johnson sat on the bench again to begin the second half. This time, on the heels of a 14-4 NU run to begin the half, Johnson walked to the scorer’s table fewer than four minutes into the half.
He stayed in the game until collecting his second foul with 55 seconds left, when DeChellis brought him back to the bench.
Johnson played 14 minutes in the second half, and finished with seven points and seven rebounds.
“I have confidence in my teammates, and I think they do a heck of a job on the glass,” Johnson said. “But I always think that I can get every rebound so it probably would help a little if I was in the game.”
Reach Abe Rakov at [email protected].
