Johnson gets road family farewell

Thursday, Jan. 16 \| 6 p.m. (Phoenix time) \| Chicago, Ill.

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (5-11, 0-2 WAC)	VS	CHICAGO STATE COUGARS (4-15, 0-4 WAC)

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CHICAGO – Grand Canyon senior Carlos Johnson lived in Illinois, Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington.

Returning to Arizona to play for the Lopes was one sort of homecoming. Thursday night's game in his home state is another. Centralia, Illinois, is birthplace and home for Johnson, whose Thursday night stop at Chicago State with GCU is as close as his collegiate career will get to a full family farewell.

About 30 relatives and friends will drive north for four hours from Centralia to take one last look at what Johnson made of himself since leaving for Phoenix with his mother when he was in seventh grade. The experience of playing in front of many relatives for the first time moved Johnson to postgame tears last year at Chicago State, where he scored 19 points in a GCU win. The emotions surely will resurface in his Thursday night return.

Carlos Johnson family at CSU — Carlos Johnson's relatives came in droves from
Centralia, Illinois, to Chicago State last year.

"Every time I come home and play, it's special because my family and friends get to see me play and the guys I go to war with," said Johnson, who needs 38 points to reach 1,000 career points. "They really don't get to see me because they don't have the finances and can't really travel. Since I've been here (in Chicago), I've been thinking more about it and how I feel. It's crazy to think about but we're going to go out and get the W."

The Lopes (5-11, 0-2 WAC) and the Cougars (4-15, 0-4) both need a win badly but the bottom of the WAC is unfamiliar territory for GCU. The Lopes could return to .500 in conference play with successful stops at Chicago State on Thursday night and Kansas City on Saturday night and more quality play from Johnson, who is averaging career highs for points (14.4), rebounds (5.4) and steals (1.2).

Johnson's father, grandmother and sisters will be among the relatives at the game, which will be the first time that one uncle has seen Johnson play basketball in person.

"Where we're from, we don't have a lot of things so we don't take it for granted when we get something," Johnson said. "Being from Centralia is about always going hard and everybody is big on toughness where I'm from because we always get looked over."

That is also the current position for GCU, a preseason No. 2 pick in the WAC that opened conference play by losing a 12-point lead at CSU Bakersfield and coming within one point in the final minute of a home loss against California Baptist.

The Lopes have won eight consecutive meetings with Chicago State but are not able to be overly confident. GCU is 0-3 in road games this season and is coming off five losses in the previous six games.

"We're in no position to think that way," Lopes head coach Dan Majerle said. "If that's the mindset, that's why we're in a bad spot. We've got to go in there with all the urgency of the world and find a way to win a game. By a point if we have to, but find a way to win a game.

"We've still got time to turn it around but it's got to be a mindset to turn it around and that's one game at a time."

GCU is coming off consecutive sub-40% shooting performances for the first time since Dec. 29, 2018-Jan. 3, 2019, when the latter came as the last WAC season was starting. Those Lopes wound up ranked second in the WAC for field goal percentage.

These Lopes rank 25th in the nation for least turnovers per game (11.4) but need to restore the efficiency of shooting 48% at New Mexico and 46% against Eastern Illinois before this two-game losing streak.

"I just want to see guys play hard, compete and find a way to win a game," Majerle said. "Whatever it takes."

Lope tracks

GCU leads the WAC in least fouls per game (15.8).
Junior center Alessandro Lever leads the WAC in field goal percentage (54.2%).
Freshman point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. ranks 43rd in the nation for minutes per game (35.8).
GCU's preivous opponents have a cumulative winning percentage of .616, which ranks 53rd among 350 Division I teams.
Chicago State averages the third-most turnovers per game (18.3) in the nation.
The Cougars allow the fourth-most points per game (84.8) in the nation.
Chicago State is allowing 38.6% 3-point shooting, the seventh-highest clip in the nation.
Cougars guards Xavier Johnson (87.9%) and Andrew Lewis (87.3%) rank in the nation's top 40 for free throw percentage.

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Thursday, Jan. 16 | 6 p.m. (Phoenix time) | Chicago, Ill.

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Players Mentioned

Jovan Blacksher Jr.

Carlos Johnson

Alessandro Lever

Grand Canyon University Athletics