UCSB guard Orlando Johnson was named First Team All-District 9 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, it was announced Wednesday. It was the second consecutive year that the junior earned first team honors.
Johnson, who was named First Team All-Big West on Monday, enters Thursday’s ampm Big West Tournament as the league’s leading scorer at 20.3 points per game. He is also ranked among the conference’s top-10 in rebounding at 6.6 per game, field goal percentage at 46.9%, free throw percentage at 82.0%, steals at 1.18 per game and three-point field goals made at 1.82 per game.
“O.J. works so hard and wants so badly to succeed, both personally and as a team, that this type of award is well-deserved,” said UCSB head coach Bob Williams. “We knew he was a hard worker before he got here, but until he was actually here, we didn’t realize how hard he worked. He is really special.”
Johnson joins Alex Harris as the only two Gauchos named to two NABC All-District 9 Teams and the first to earn his way onto the first team twice. He was joined on the first team by Casper Ware of Long Beach State, Mickey McConnell of St. Mary’s, Steven Gray of Gonzaga and Kevin Foster of Santa Clara.
The Second Team All-District 9 squad included Long Beach’s Larry Anderson, Pacific’s Sam Willard, Robert Sacre of Gonzaga, Rob Jones of St. Mary’s and San Francisco’s Michael Williams.
Johnson will lead the Gauchos into the ampm Big West Tournament on Thursday. The fifth-seeded Gauchos face fourth-seeded Pacific in a game that should tip-off at around 2:30 p.m. at Honda Center in Anaheim.
