Gibson Johnson has been to 46 states and will soon make Hawaii his 47th in the quest for 50.
Only this will be different — it will be a recruiting visit to the University of Hawaii.
Johnson is a 6-foot, 8-inch, 240-pound power forward from national junior college champion Salt Lake (Utah) Community College who said he is scheduled to visit UH next week.
“I can’t wait to get there,” said the 24-year-old Johnson, who averaged 12 points and 5.6 rebounds per game for the Bruins.
“Hawaii is one of his last visits,” said SLCC coach Todd Phillips. He said San Francisco, San Diego and Southern Utah have been UH’s main rivals for Johnson’s services, “though some others have tried to come in lately.”
Johnson’s summer job for the Color Run 5K races has taken him across the country and a church mission took him to the Amazon region of Brazil for two years.
Coming out of high school, where he was an all-state golfer, he thought that might be his sport, but, “The funny thing is when I left I was 6 feet 5 and maybe 195 pounds, but when I came back I was 6-8 and 225,” Johnson said. “The people fed me real well.”
Johnson said former UH assistant Norm Parrish began the recruiting process in 2015 before leaving to become a head coach at Westminster (Utah) College and he followed the Rainbow Warriors’ ascent to the NCAA Tournament.
Phillips said, “Gibby played both the four and five spots for us and is real physical and can shoot the outside shot. He’s also a very smart player and student, a lot like Sai Tummala, another one of our former players.”
Coaches said Johnson likes challenges, whether it is cliff diving from 70 feet, visiting all 50 states or mastering languages. “I’m working on my fourth one (French) right now,” said Johnson, who also claims Portuguese and Spanish.
However, Johnson said the other remaining states on his list — Montana and North and South Dakota — will have to wait.
“I know he is excited about Hawaii,” said assistant coach Paul Marble.
