An Ivan Johnson Sighting in Anaheim!
Ivan Johnson is the huge load of a basketball player who didn't exactly lead Cal State San Bernardino to the NCAA Division II semifinals ... but he certainly had a lot to do with the Coyotes getting there, last March.
We saw that he had been selected by the Anaheim Arsenal of the NBA Development League, the route he chose rather than go to some European outpost and play for probably better money.
Anyway, Ivan didn't do much of anything for the first three weeks of the season. He didn't play at all in the Arsenal's first three games (all of which it lost), then had five games of erratic near-nothingness, playing limited minutes and racking up almost as many fouls as points.
Then came Sunday's home game vs. Bakersfield.
Ivan went off for 27 points, five rebounds and four steals in 33 minutes as Anaheim rolled over Bakersfield 119-109.
Johnson was 9-of-14 from the field and 7-for-7 from the line. He had four fouls in a league that allows six.
And this is all is SO Ivan Johnson.
If you saw him play at Cal State S.B. last season, you know how erratic he can be. If he gets a couple of early fouls (and he almost always does), he can get frustrated, and he disappears or, worse, loses his temper.
He also can seem to pout. He hadn't scored more than seven points in his first five games. Actually, he had almost as many fouls (18) as points (19) in those five games.
But if he gets on a roll, and the refs let him play, he is such a powerful guy (6-8, 230) that he can bully his way to the hole ... but he can also score on nice, soft jumpers up to 18 feet.
The trick for Ivan is going to be showing some sort of consistency. And getting in shape, which tends to be an issue for him, too.
The D-League is THE official waiting room for the NBA. If Ivan can put up a string of 20-point games, and rebound a bit more, and be more intelligently physical than he tends to be (his fouls are mostly of the ticky-tack variety) ... he WILL be seen and noticed and he will get a shot with somebody in the NBA. One of those 10-day contract deals where he will have a chance to show he belongs.
The key is ... going for 27 more often than once every six games. The NBA is always open to 6-8 guys ... but they have to show they can perform with some level of predictability.
Just FYI: Ivan's teammates include former USC standout Lodrick Stewart and former Phoenix Suns and BYU-Hawaii guard Yuta Tabuse, a native of Japan.
Steven Smith, a 6-8 forward out of LaSalle, is Anaheim's leading scorer at 18.8 ppg; Guillermo Diaz, a 6-2 guard from Miami, is right behind Smith, at 18.0 ppg.
Oh, and the team's web site lists Ivan as having attended "No College." We'll have to point that out to the team.