The Marquette University men’s basketball team has added transfer Jayce Johnson (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Monica HS/Utah) to the program, head coach Steve Wojciechowski announced Wednesday afternoon.
Johnson, a 7-0, 235-pounder, will arrive on campus this summer and have one season of eligibility in 2019-20 as a graduate transfer. He will graduate this spring from Utah with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in health.
“We are thrilled to welcome Jayce to our basketball family,” Wojciechowski said. “He is a talented and experienced player who we expect to have a great impact on our program, both on and off the court. We can’t wait to start working with him and integrating him with our current players for next season.”
The Mission Viejo, Calif., native appeared in 90 career games (31 starts) over the course of a trio of campaigns for the Utes, contributing 5.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in an average of 16.6 minutes per contest. In three seasons, he swatted 77 opposing shot attempts and is second only to Theo John (96) on the current MU roster in that category.
He started in 24-of-28 appearances in 2018-19 and chipped in 7.0 points and 7.5 boards per game while shooting 58.6 percent from the floor. Johnson enrolled early at Utah and redshirted in 2015-16 when he arrived on campus for the second semester. He played in all 32 games in 2016-17 and followed that up as a redshirt sophomore with a season that saw him finish second on the roster in field goal percentage (.552).
Johnson was a top-100 recruit as a senior at Santa Monica High School in 2016 and was named a Top-100 Under Amour All-American. He was ranked as high as 47th in the nation and played on the AAU circuit for Earl Watson Elite.
Johnson joins two newcomers and a pair of redshirts who didn’t see action for the Golden Eagles in the program’s 24-win, NCAA tournament campaign in 2018-19. Sophomore Greg Elliott (6-3, 180) redshirted after suffering a preseason hand injury. He appeared in 35 games (four starts) as a freshman in 2017-18, averaging nearly 20 minutes per contest.
Junior Koby McEwen (6-4, 200) sat out last season per NCAA transfer rules after spending two years at Utah State. He was a Third Team All-Mountain West performer as a sophomore in 2017-18, starting each of the 30 games in which he appeared while contributing 15.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.
Freshman Dexter Akanno (6-4, 200), who prepped at Blair Academy (N.J.) in 2018-19 and is the team’s lone freshman, helped the program to the state’s Prep A Championship and contributed 13.0 points, 6.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game.
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