My Two Cents: For Xavier Johnson and Khristian Lander, Some Days You Just Need a Hug

Saturday at Maryland was a special day for Indiana point guards Xavier Johnson and Khristian Lander, for vastly different reasons. It was a homecoming of sorts for Johnson, with quality time spent with family. And for Lander, he was back on the floor and contributing, which was very important for him as well as he scratches to find a role on this team.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Sometimes, in the dog days of a college basketball season, all you need is a hug. 

We saw a lot of that on Saturday after Indiana beat Maryland 68-55 at the Xfinity Center here in the DMV, It was the Hoosiers' second straight road win, and at 16-5 overall and 7-4 in the Big Ten, it kept them in the thick of the Big Ten title race.

Race Thompson and Trayce Jackson-Davis posted huge numbers for Indiana, both scoring and on the boards, but this was Xavier Johnson's game.

And his homecoming.

Johnson, the Hoosiers' risk/reward point guard who came to Indiana this summer after three years at Pittsburgh, grew up about 30 miles southwest of College Park in Woodbridge, Va., and he had all sorts of friends and family members at the game. 

He was dialed in and focused in pregame, fully understanding the importance of the moment, and he played exactly like his coach — the hard-on-point-guards Mike Woodson — wanted him to.

Johnson orchestrated Indiana's offensive perfectly, dishing out a season-high nine assists, and he played lock-down defense on his Maryland counterpart, Fatts Russell, who was coming off a 23-point game with five three-pointers. He was just 3-for-12 shooting against Johnson and his mates on Saturday in front of a national TV audience, with just one made three-pointer in five tries.

Johnson didn't shoot it well — he was just 1-for-8 from the field — but he made 5-fo-6 free throws and finished with eight points, and I joked that it might have been the best game an Indiana point guard who shot 1-for-8 has ever played. He was dynamic, with perfect behind-the-back passes, vicious attacks at the rim and pinpoint passes to his big guys, both in transition and in the flow of the offense.

He was good. 

Really, really good.

And this kid, as we know, is the same kid who was booed off the court by Indiana "fans" just a month ago in Indianapolis, when he was struggling through Indiana's win against Notre Dame with some forced plays and bad decisions.

Well, this is a different Xavier Johnson now. He had just two turnovers Saturday and has just seven in the Hoosiers' past four game, covering 130 minutes. He's had 23 assists during that time and his 3.29 assist-to-turnover ratio would rank No. 6 in the country, and third among Power 5 guards.

That's damn good.

Those boos? Nowhere to be found now. He's playing at a high level, a best-since-Yogi-Ferrell kind of level at Indiana.

Family, as we all know, means everything. That applies to Johnson, too, who has a very tight-knit group. And especially when you're far away from home and face-to-face contact is rare, you really cherish those moments together.

Just watch this short video of Johnson and his family after the game ... and that long hug with his mom, La’Kesha Johnson, at the end.

It's priceless, because it was so obvious that neither one of them wanted to let go.

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With Rob Phinisee out indefinitely with a foot injury, there were a lot of questions about what might happen when Johnson needed a blow at point guard. Phinisee, the senior from Lafayette who's been great lately too, has plantar fasciitis in his right foot and had a boot on Saturday, getting around the Xfinity Center on a scooter.

Scooter Phinisee, it's got a nice ring to it. 

Indiana guard Rob Phinisee smiles on the bench with his scooter and boot prior to Saturday’s game at Maryland. 

Indiana's third point guard, Khristian Lander, hasn't played a minute since Dec. 29, and just eight games all year prior to Saturday. He's been dealing with tendinitis in his knee, but a lot of those DNP's were coach's decisions, too. Lander, the Evansville, Ind., native who left high school a year early to come to Indiana last year, has struggled to find a place in the rotation, not quite ready to contribute on both ends of the floor in the tough, physical Big Ten.

Because he came to Indiana as a five-star-rated recruit, the fan base wants more and expects more from him, even if the ratings ''experts'' were wrong to bump him up to a five-star. The pressure has been immense on the kid, with much of it unfounded.

But it's Woodson who does the rankings now, and Lander has sat behind Johnson and Phinisee all season. He played OK when Phinisee missed three games with a calf injury in November, but it's also very clear that Johnson and Phinisee have been playing well the past month, and there's been no room for Lander on the floor.

But Saturday was different. Woodson needed Lander with Phinisee out. And Lander needed to respond.

But he came in at the 10-minute mark in the first half and was terrible. He had a turnover and committed two silly fouls, and Woodson had to take him right back out after just two-plus minutes. Johnson returned, and played great the rest of the half.

But in the second half, Lander was terrific, and that was huge. He played the final seven-plus minutes and did a nice job, outside of picking up two more fouls. He had a beautiful assist on a pass to Trayce Jackson-Davis that led to a dunk and then, when Trayce was double-teamed on the next possession, Lander held his spot and spacing on the wing, took the pass and nailed a three-pointer.

It was a much better sequence.

After the game, Lander spoke with the media out in the hallway near the Indiana locker room. It was the first time he's talked since November.

Wearing his glasses and masked up, Lander answered questions for about five minutes. Midway through, Jackson-Davis, the Hoosiers' leader and Lander's big brother on this team, put his arm around him and hugged him up. Trayce just listened, and didn't say a word, just holding on to his teammate for a minute or so.

The statement there? Despite all the kid's struggles, his teammates have his back — unconditionally. That's how close this group is.

"My teammates have always kept putting confidence in me every day, and then when it’s my time to go, I’m ready,” Lander said while Jackson-Davis looked on, not saying a word.  “I felt good in the morning and I felt good in shootaround yesterday. I was ready to play.” 

Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis puts his arm around Khristian Lander while the sophomore point guard answers questions from the media for the first time in a month

Having success in the second half was critical after those first-half struggles. The pass was great, and hitting a three had to be huge for his mental health going forward. 

“I was kind of frustrated from the two fouls I got in the first half,” Lander said. “I just had to calm myself down and be ready to play in the second half, play my game.

“It got me more comfortable running the offense (and finding Jackson-Davis). I’ve been kind of dealing with a knee problem a little bit, trying to come back from that. It’s been a whole lot better now. It was just learning, seeing what I could do when I got out on the floor.”

Thompson appreciated the boost they got from Lander, especially in the second half.

"He really played well and helped us on offense. To back up X in this time, he can really help us,'' Thompson said of Lander. "When the guys on our bench come in and play well, it gives all of us more confidence. I thought he did a good job today.''

Woodson claims to have faith in everyone, including Lander, but he also demands results, too. No one is going to get minutes just for the sake of getting minutes.

“I've got faith in everybody that wears this uniform,” Woodson said, and that includes ''young Khristian,'' as he often calls him. “But whatever minutes you give us, you better give us the most positive minutes to help us win.”

Khristian Lander did that on Saturday, and as much as Indiana needed that from him, Lander needed it even more himself.

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Mike Woodson got caught on camera in Indiana's postgame locker room saying "this team can beat anybody in college basketball if they put their mind to it.''

That's a lot to say, but this is a team that's looked very good lately, winning four of five. They have signature wins in January over then-No. 4 Purdue and then-No. 11 Ohio State.

They have a lot more to accomplish, of course, and they feel like as long as they are getting a lot out of Johnson at the point, that they can make some noise going forward.

"X is starting to see the game better, that's what I call it, from a point guard stance," Woodson said of Johnson. "The game is slowing down now. He's starting to see things, and he's making winning plays for our ballclub, on both ends of the floor. 

"He's always been able to defend and get after people, but offensively, I think the game is starting to slow down for him, and it's gotten a little bit easier for him, and we benefited from it."

Xavier Johnson in pregame warmups at Maryland on Saturday

Johnson's teammates have had his back from the beginning, too, mostly because they all knew from the summer on that he was a different beast at the position, something they hadn't had in a while. He's a north/south player, and he can get downhill quickly and break down defenses.

In the early going, there were plenty of mistakes while playing at such a fast pace. Part of it was nerves, wanting to add a big piece to the Hoosiers, but the bigger part was still just trying to figure out Woodson's offense and his own teammates.

That was a whole lot of new. And the learning curve was big. That comfort level is there now, and he's been terrific through much of January.

This locker room is so tight, and his teammates have always had his back. Just relax and play, that was often the message, much of the time from leaders Jackson-Davis and Thompson, but also even from Phinisee, the man he replaced in the starting lineup. They are tight too, and Phinisee deserves a lot of credit for handling all of that so well. They've made each other better.

'He's been playing great for us for the past couple games, but I mean, to us, that's really no surprise," Thompson said of Johnson. "He really helps our team win games. And when he plays like that, even if he's not scoring the ball, when he has nine assists,  that's a lot of points he's getting for other guys. He's creating opportunities, and I think if he keeps doing that, then we will be tough to beat."

Postgame, it was nice to put faces to the names, spending a few minutes with Johnson's dad, Michael Johnson. For as much as Xavier enjoyed the game, the family did, too. Those bonds? Man, they are super-tight, too.

Xavier Johnson talked a lot about family during one of our "Point Guard Podcast'' shows on HoosiersNow.com a few weeks ago. We were talking about dealing with those December boos, and Xavier said it was really important to be able to go home for the first time in six months the day after that Notre Dame game.

"I think it started with that Notre Dame game when I got booed, honestly,'' Johnson said of his turnaround. "After that, we went home (for Christmas break), and that gave me confidence just being around my family, because I hadn't seen my dad and my family in six months. 

"That was a confidence booster for me. Them talking to me, and my dad talking to me, that gave me confidence when I came back because I'm a better player than what I've shown.''

He's shown that high level lately, and you can see the happiness and confidence in his face. You could also see how much it meant to him to get a big road win in front of friends and family. That's a day none of them will forget for a long time.

           ***    ***    ***

There is value in my work to being at every game live and in person, because you get glimpses of things that you'd never see otherwise. That's why I've been to all 21 games so far this season, home and road.

Last year, being there — even through COVID and empty arenas — was seeing players before and after games who almost never smiled. They weren't happy, and it was a long, hard year in the fourth and final season of the Archie Miller era.

This year, it's so much different with Mike Woodson in charge. There's player-to-coach respect, and it's blatantly obvious. But that's a two-way street, too. Woodson is thoroughly enjoying being around these kids.

Once all the postgame family gatherings were done at courtside on Saturday afternoon, Woodson, Jackson-Davis and Thompson walked across the court together to head out to the bus, and then ''back to the crib.'' The smiles were huge, and there was laughter, with Jackson-Davis putting his arm around his coach's shoulders too, much like he did with with Lander a few minutes earlier.

They are in this together. All of them.

And isn't that a wonderful thing?

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