NCAA Basketball: New Orleans and Virginia Tech with latest Players of the Week

Jordan Johnson - New Orleans Privateers

Do yourself a favor and go watch Johnson play basketball. He is one of the truly elite scorers and shooters in the NCAA. He is also most of the Privateers' offense. New Orleans is not a great team overall, but they are one of the better teams in the Southland and Johnson is a huge reason why. Last year he shot almost 50% from deep and he took almost 200 threes. Heading into this season everyone expected big things from the guard, but he started slow, at least by his standards, heading into play on 01/15/2024 the guard is shooting 39% from deep which by his standards is low but anyone else he is still one of the best shooters in the country.

In a win against Texas A&M Commerce the guard scored 36 points on 10-19 shooting, 2-5 from deep, and went 14-16 at the free throw line. He also added 4 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals to his line. New Orleans only won the game by 3 points and he was the main reason why his team won. He hit so many huge buckets down the stretch to win that game for the Privateers. Johnson was back it again in a three point win he scored 40 points of 10-15 shooting, 6-7 from the three point line, and 14-17 from the free throw line. He was able to add 7 rebounds and 3 assists to his line as well. It was a huge week for Johnson, and it will be hard to find another player who is going to have a week scoring like that for the rest of the year.

76 points over 2 games is huge production. The Southland doesn’t have great teams but the competition level inside the conference is good. Johnson is one of the most prolific scorers in the country and while he has had a lot of 30 point games over the last two seasons he has never been able to have a consistent week and put up back to back great games until now. Congratulations Jordan and the rest of the New Orleans Privateers. It is good to finally recognize the great basketball being played in the Southland.