Three Years in the Making: Tessa Johnson’s Path to the Point Guard Spot / sportsearchers.com

Reports out of South Carolina’s summer workouts suggest Tessa Johnson has become the clear frontrunner to run the point for the Gamecocks, stepping into the void left by Maddy McDaniel’s continued absence from the program. For anyone who’s followed Johnson’s development closely, this outcome looks less like a surprise and more like the natural conclusion of a plan set in motion years ago.

A high school floor general, reshaped for a stacked roster

Long before she ever wore garnet and black, Johnson was running the show. As the starting point guard at St. Michael-Albertville High School, she led her team to Minnesota’s 2023 state championship, capped by a memorable upset of powerhouse Hopkins in the title game itself. That kind of primary ball-handling pedigree doesn’t simply vanish once a player arrives on campus — it gets shelved, waiting for the right opportunity.

And shelved is exactly what happened. Once she got to Columbia, Johnson found herself surrounded by established veteran guards in Raven Johnson and Te-Hina Paopao, forcing a shift away from primary ball-handling and into more of a catch-and-shoot specialist role. She acknowledged that transition candidly back in October 2025: “I kind of made myself a three-point shooter. I didn’t really attack as much as I can.” That’s a notable admission — a player with genuine point guard instincts consciously narrowing her own game to fit the roster in front of her, rather than the other way around.

Quiet reps that built toward this moment

Even while operating primarily as a shooter, South Carolina never fully let those point guard instincts go dormant. During blowout fourth quarters throughout her freshman season, coaches regularly inserted Johnson into ball-handling duties, both to rest Raven Johnson and Paopao and to keep her developing as a potential floor general down the line. She spoke to that deliberate, long-term plan during the 2024 NCAA Tournament: “I’ve played point a couple of times, and in practice I’ve been running a little point. It helps me overall, seeing the floor. In the future, maybe I’ll have to run point.” Looking back, that comment reads almost like a preview of exactly where she stands today.

A real audition last season

That eventual test arrived sooner than expected. When McDaniel missed seven games last season, point guard duties were split between Johnson, Ta’Niya Latson and Agot Makeer — a genuine, extended trial run rather than a hypothetical scenario. The experience clearly paid off, both in Johnson’s overall growth as a player and in her being recognized with Second-Team All-SEC honors.

Head coach Dawn Staley has been vocal about crediting that steady development. “Tessa’s been building toward being this type of guard for the past two years,” Staley said. “She just really got serious… Tessa puts the work in.” That framing matters — Staley isn’t describing a sudden emergence, but a gradual, intentional buildup that’s simply now reaching its logical conclusion.

Where things stand now

Originally, the plan heading into this offseason had Johnson, Makeer and freshman Jerzy Robinson all providing depth behind McDaniel at the point. With McDaniel’s return still uncertain and full team practices not yet underway, that hierarchy has effectively flipped — Johnson now looks likely to open the season as the starter, with Makeer and Robinson shifting into the backup roles originally meant to support McDaniel.

The payoff of a long-term plan

Taken together, Johnson’s path to this point reflects something college programs don’t always get right: identifying a player’s long-term positional value early, then patiently developing it in the background even while her primary role looked completely different on the surface. After three years of shooting drills, blowout-minutes reps, and a real midseason audition last year, the opportunity she’s quietly been preparing for appears to have finally arrived.