This evaluation of Michala Johnson is based on two games of Montini Catholic against Trinity on Dec. 27, 2007 and Glenbard South Nov. 16, 2007.
Johnson is an extremely mobile 6-3 forward. She can run the floor and keep up with the guards and her speed also allows her to get down the court early and establish post position in transition. Maintaining post position is an area for improvement and shows the need to add strength. She flashes to the ball and gets position but can get pushed off her spot by more aggressive defenders. Good thing for her at the high school level she won’t see too much of it.
She gets double teamed on the blocks a lot in one game and left one-on-one in the other. When doubled she finds an open teammate instantly and in some cases passes the post entry pass back out in the same motion as she receives it. When she gets stronger and learns to post with her base wider and lower reposting will become a big thing for her, especially because she is so good at passing the ball out to open teammates. When she is left one-on-one Johnson is a handful for any high school defender to stop. She has quick moves and can finish once she beats the defender. She can finish with both hands and goes both baseline and to the middle with both hands.
Michala Johnson extends with her left.
In the paint Johnson needs to become more physical. She does a good job of trying to box out on each shot but with her size she should be a rebounding machine. Off the ball on defense she often gets stuck underneath the basket when the shot goes up and not being physical in clearing space for a rebound she doesn’t dominate that part of the game as well as she could. She grabs her fair share of boards but with a player this special you expect her to dominate several phases of the game.
As Johnson gets stronger she can also assert herself in the paint offensively. She works hard inside flashing high, diving to the rim, working for position on the low block but a lot of the work goes for not because she isn’t demanding of the ball yet. She can dominate a game and she needs to recognize the mismatches she poses the defense every time down the court.
Her agility makes her versatile but in these two games she didn’t have to handle the ball and on rebounds always found the proper outlet. She has the speed and quickness to be able to play the perimeter so putting time in to shooting from the perimeter and handling the ball would be beneficial to expanding her game that much more.
There aren’t too many forward prospects out there with her combination of quickness and size that also recognize doubles and handle them properly at this age. She is a big time prospect that just needs to get stronger and play more physical and she’s an elite prospect at either the big forward or center positions. She has an extremely high ceiling and her post repertoire should only grow with time given she can already score with both hands as a sophomore.
Discuss This on Our Message Board:
Click Here [1]
Chris Hansen is the National Director of Scouting for Women’s Basketball at HoopGurlz.com. He leads the panel that evaluates and ranks girl's basketball prospects nationally for HoopGurlz. Chris has been involved in the women’s basketball community since 1998 as a coach, trainer, evaluator and reporter. He can be reached at chris@hoopgurlz.com [2].