Bob Lutz: Two seasons, two season-ending knee injuries for Maize’s Brianna Johnson

Brianna Johnson was finally starting to feel like herself.

Her cuts were crisper. She was moving more freely. Her shot was coming around.

After nearly a year away from basketball to recover from anterior-cruciate ligament surgery on her left knee, the Maize sophomore guard was starting to forget about the injury that forced her out of last year’s Class 6A semifinal game against Manhattan. The Eagles won, but the injury cost her a chance to help her teammates in the championship game against Wichita South.

Maize lost that one 47-35. Who knows whether having Johnson would have made the difference between winning and losing.

Who knows?

“I worked really hard to get back and I was just getting into shape,” said the 5-foot-5 Johnson. “My shot was getting better and I was really working hard.”

And then.…

You knew this story was headed for an “and then.…”

Early in Maize’s sub-state championship win over Hutchinson on Saturday night, Johnson was chasing a loose ball when her right knee popped.

Different knee, same feeling. There was intense physical pain and a nearly uncontrollable emotional reaction. She knew. Everybody knew.

Johnson, who went into her freshman season with the highest of expectations, was again headed for surgery as a sophomore. It’ll happen next Friday and she hopes she can recover in time to play next season.

“Even though we won that game against Hutchinson, our players were crying and upset,” Maize coach Jerrod Handy said. “We felt so disappointed for Brianna.”

Johnson returned to the Eagles on Jan. 8 against Salina South and started the Eagles’ next game against Kapaun Mount Carmel at Koch Arena. She played in 17 games, averaging more than five points.

On a senior-dominated team with veterans Keiryn Swenson and Daley Handy leading the way, undefeated Maize (22-0) is still probably a favorite to reach Saturday’s 6A championship game at Koch Arena. But a healthy Johnson would make a title more likely.

Johnson’s quickness and ability to get to the basket from the perimeter is what sets her apart, Handy said.

The first knee injury, though, impacted her quickness. She was just starting to show flashes of her old self when the right knee buckled.

“Right when it happened, I knew exactly what it was,” Johnson said. “It felt the same as the other one. I was just saying, ‘No, no, no, not again.’”

Johnson’s dad, Brian, a former basketball player at West, is a Maize assistant coach. He, like everyone else, gasped when Brianna went down and grabbed her knee.

“She didn’t actually tell me, but I heard from some others that Brianna really didn’t want to go through another surgery because it was so hard getting back from the first one,” Brian Johnson said. “But then (Monday) she told me she was going to go ahead and get it done. She set a goal of getting back at the end of July so she can play with her summer AAU team that I coach.”

July is an ambitious goal. It’s more likely Brianna will have to wait until December or January to play again.

“I’ll just keep going through it, keep working hard,” she said. “I’m up for it and ready to get this next surgery over with. It’s fine, I can do it. There are a lot of people who are going to help me through it. I’m not giving up.”

But could you blame her if she did?

Time in high school is so short. Already, Johnson has been forced to miss out on so much.

“I really didn’t know what to tell her this time,” Brian Johnson said. “I was just up there crying after it happened, feeling bad for her. I was wondering why this couldn’t happen to me and not my kid. But she told me on the phone to stop crying and being sad because I was making her cry more. It’s time for both of us to get ready and she knows what she has to do to get back.”

The surgery is just the first step. The first knee didn’t respond as well as Johnson expected and a follow-up surgery was required to deal with scar tissue.

“So much of coming back from something like this is mental,” Brian Johnson said. “She was just starting to get to where she was able to do some of her moves from before and then this happened.”

Brian and Brianna know it’ll drive them crazy to continue to wonder why.

Life can be unfair.

“Brianna always has that smile on her face,” Handy said. “She has such a bright personality. She’s always coming into my classroom and smiling.”

Johnson did so again Tuesday. She was on crutches. Again. Smiling through the disappointment.

This story was originally published March 10, 2015 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Two seasons, two season-ending knee injuries for Maize’s Brianna Johnson."