Whatever Happened to Husky Big Man BPJ?

It was nearly two years ago, during pre-pandemic times, when University of Washington basketball coach Mike Hopkins brought up the name of Bryan Penn-Johnson, his 7-foot redshirt freshman center, and spoke about him in glowing terms.

"BPJ hasn't had a sniff, but that kid can play," Hopkins raved to a postgame media audience. "He's going to be a great player here."

The often overly optimistic Husky coach couldn't have been more wrong about that for a player whose nickname sounds a lot like a popular grade-school sandwich.

Two months later in 2020, Penn-Johnson entered the transfer portal, on his way to LSU while putting Seattle in his rearview-mirror. It was a short stay in the South.

After just 5 games for the SEC team, the California native packed up his stuff and went home during the holidays a year ago at a time of surging COVID-19. The school said he left for personal reasons.

Today, Penn-Johnson plays for East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, California, which is east of downtown L.A., for a 9-4 team known as the Huskies.

He pulls 10.1 minutes per game as a starter and averages 6.4 points and 3.9 rebounds as he tries to rekindle his college basketball career.

ELAC coach John Mosley likewise puts an overly positive spin on the big man, who he says is beginning to stir recruiting interest again, even at a most unlikely place.

According to him, the school in Montlake is sizing up Penn-Johnson once more.

“He's getting a lot of mid-major looks in terms of interests,” Mosley told 247Sports. “It's pretty much Big West, Mountain West, a few Pac-12 schools and everything on the West Coast. The University of Washington would like to get him back in terms of Pac-12 interest."

While with the Huskies, BPJ appeared in 12 games, scored 12 points and blocked 8 shots. He mostly sat and watched for two seasons, drawing extended minutes only in a game at Colorado.

From a distance, he seemed like a sensitive guy who was well-liked by his teammates and coaches. He was capable of entertaining everyone with his intricate dribbling moves all while seated with his big frame crammed into a court-side chair.

Yet Penn-Johnson had one major drawback to his game, that slowed his development, an infliction that still affects former 6-foot-11 Husky teammate Nate Roberts to this day, one that Hopkins never addresses.

Bad hands.

Neither Penn-Johnson nor Roberts showed himself to be proficient at all in hauling in a lob pass deep in the post and turning it into points for the UW. It not addressed, that's a career death knell for a big man.

Maybe East Los Angeles can fix this issue for BPJ and get him back to a Division 1 program. His coach is hopeful.

“He's learning how to get deep and how to finish while he's there,” Mosley said. “I'm talking about at a high level where he's unstoppable against everybody."

Penn-Johnson certainly has the size to flourish in the college ranks. His nickname isn't bad either. Can he get the rest to follow?

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