Redshirt junior wing Jalen Johnson hit the transfer portal on March 23rd in hopes of finding a better opportunity for him on the basketball court to finish out his college career. Nearly three weeks later, he announced that he would be remaining in East Tennessee to finish out his college career.
Johnson took to Twitter on Friday afternoon to announce his decision to play his final season of college basketball for Steve Forbes at East Tennessee State. The Durham, North Carolina native tweeted “New Beginnings #GoBucs” with a graphic of himself in a No. 0 ETSU jersey.
New Beginnings??? #GoBucs pic.twitter.com/YUzZfCQzNX
— Jalen Johnson (@The_Jalen_) April 10, 2020
The 6-foot-6, 196-pound guard will be immediately eligible for the Bucs for the upcoming 2020-21 season. Johnson completed his degree in Communication Studies from Tennessee.
Johnson played sparingly in his three years with the Vols. He redshirted in 2016-17 before averaging 5.1 minutes per game as a redshirt freshman in ’17-18 and 5.8 minutes per game as a redshirt sophomore in ’18-19. He averaged 1.2 points per game as a redshirt freshman and 1.5 points the following year, respectively.
As a redshirt junior this past season, Johnson saw his minutes increase to 15.7 per game. He averaged 3.5 points on 31.9 percent shooting from three and 37 percent shooting from the field. Johnson chipped in 2.0 rebounds per game. blocked 13 shots, and picked up 12 steals.
Johnson was used mostly as the first man off the bench for the Vols this past season, playing in all 31 games and making his first career start during Tennessee’s home win against Arkansas on February 11th. He started the next game on the road against South Carolina, too.
Down the stretch, Johnson became an important piece off the bench for the Vols. In UT’s final 18 games of the shortened 2019-20 season, Johnson averaged 19.1 minutes, 4.2 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.2 assists while hitting 32.7 percent of his threes and 37.1 percent of his overall shots.
East Tennessee State is coming off of a historic season for the program. The Buccaneers were poised to make a run in the NCAA Tournament following a Southern Conference Tournament title until the Big Dance was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ETSU loses six seniors off their roster from this past season, which includes four of their top six leading scorers.
Along with Johnson, ETSU has also added Southeastern Louisiana transfer Ty Brewer and Northern Kentucky grad transfer Silas Adheke to next year’s roster.
