Tessa Johnson remembers the moment she fell in love with South Carolina’s program.

A lot of Gamecock fans remember it just as fondly.

It was the 2022 Final Four and Johnson, then a high school junior enjoying the biggest event in the sport coming to her hometown of Minneapolis, could not get enough of what she saw.

“I watched the Final Four games in person,” Johnson said. “I was with my aunt and I literally told her like, ‘I love their style of play. I love it, I love how coach [Dawn] Staley coaches.’ It was amazing.”

Just over a year later, she is on campus and eager to experience everything she watched from afar.

“They were fast," Johnson said. "They knew what they were doing, they were coaching each other, listening to coach, but that also didn’t need her to coach. It was like they were coaching each other on the floor.”

“I like to play fast. When I was on point in high school, I loved to push the ball. But I also like to play smart. I can slow the game down if needed, but if I’m playing off the ball, just still go.”

"Just the competition and seeing my game develop and then seeing my team develop from summer workouts right now compared to the beginning of the year compared to the middle and the end.”

Three years ago, the eventual McDonald’s All-American missed nine months of action with a broken femur. It crushed an entire season of her high school career, and forced her to change a lot mentally.

“It was definitely a struggle,” Johnson said. “I was going up and down mentally, physically, it was just hard not being able to do things that I’m usually able to do. But I think that it pushed me stronger mentally and it made me see the game differently.”

Part of her play style is that ‘play smart’ trait she describes. Her definition of playing smart is “being able to read the defense right away instead of waiting.” And while admitting a lot of that at the college level will come with experience and playing time, she also knows how far she has already come.

A lot of her learning came from the different lens her injury forced her to view basketball through.

“I was coaching people from the sideline,” she recalled. “I was understanding my teammates more, I was able to watch each of them individually. Usually when I’m playing, I’m not able to specifically watch them. I’m able to read them a little bit, like their emotions on the court, but I was just able to read them a lot more.”

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