Raven Johnson On Start To The Season: 'It's Definitely Revenge Season'
Heading into this season, many pundits felt that this would be a rare season where Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks would take a step back, ever so slightly, in their on-court performance. One and a half weeks in, and the verdict has come back: they might actually be better than they were last year. Compiling three-straight 100-point performances while holding your opponents to an average of 62.3 points per game will have that effect.
One player who's played a key role behind this hot start is point guard Raven Johnson who, in her first season as a full-time starter, is shooing over 40 percent from the field, turned the ball over just five times in 83 total minutes, and is coming off a career performance against Clemson where she dished out 17 assists, the most by an SEC player since 2005.
After a dominating win over the Tigers, Johnson joined MiLaysia Fulwiley for a postgame presser with the media, and was asked at one point what it's like to see her intentions or goals for this season come to fruition. Raven didn't hold back with her response.
"Going off from last season, [and] the Final Four game, the whole season every I feel like everybody was riding our coattails just hyping us up, but as soon as we lost, we got all these hate comments. I got bashed from a viral video that went so viral and people don't know behind the scenes how I felt and what what I went through. So, I think that put fuel to the fire and I said this was this revenge season and I got something for everybody. Every team that comes up. So I think that was the best thing that ever happened to me and I think God does things for a reason and so maybe I needed that, but I say this team, we're coming for a lot. So it's definitely revenge season."
That viral moment that Johnson referred to was the moment where Iowa star Caitlin Clark waved her off as she shot and missed a three in the Gamecocks' Final Four loss in March. Combine that with the dark side of social media, and that moment for Raven was unfairly singled out from that night. Those same people, however, might've made a tremendous mistake, because with Raven's current pace, she will get this team back to the Final Four, and this time, she plans to leave with somethin'.
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