Michigan Basketball: Wade’s world, Johns Jr is ‘a pro’ and Wade’s potential

Brandon Johns Jr has shown flashes of talent, but coach Keith Wade, the father of  Michigan basketball player Brandon Wade, believes he’s a pro.

Brandon Johns Jr. never really found his footing in John Beilein’s rotation despite being a highly touted high school recruit. Michigan basketball was lucky enough to pluck him from the Spartans backyard, but UM didn’t find a use for Brandon during his first season.

He averaged 4.1 minutes a game as a freshman. Garbage time that amounted to an unremarkable year. The 70th best player from the 2018 class couldn’t find his way onto the court.

A year later, Brandon is on an entirely different Wolverines basketball team. Three starters had departed as did the head coach. Juwan Howard, a traditional big-man during his playing days, knew what Johns was capable of, but the pieces weren’t quite falling into place, and Brandon seemed lost in translation.

Is Brandon a center? Should he play the three? Or is he a natural power forward?

Eventually, Johns found his place and had his breakout game against Iowa, scoring 12 points and bringing down a couple of rebounds. Brandon pulled the same numbers a few weeks later against Michigan State, and you can’t forget the dominance he displayed on the boards with Oregon in town.

Then, the disappearing act began. John couldn’t consistently keep his numbers up. His confidence was shaken.

“It’s hard to play that way,” Johns said. “Everything starts speeding up and then it’s, oh, I don’t even know what I’m doing. It’s like that devil in your head, constantly bringing you down. But I’m lucky that I have great teammates and great people in my life that are helping me out, helping me be positive about everything.”

Coach Keith Wade, who’s the father of Johns’ teammate, Brandon Wade, and the current assistant coach of Skyline High School and head coach of the AAU team 1Nation, feels that if Brandon can stop second-guessing himself, he’ll be a pro.

Since 5th grade, Keith has coached against Brandon, so he knows precisely what Johns is capable of, and what it will take for him to shine.

“(Isaiah) Todd would have been huge,” Keith told GBMWolverine, “But I have coached against B (Brandon) Johns since 5th grade, have him stop looking over his shoulder and just play, he’s a pro.”

In seven games during the 2019-20 season, Johns was able to accomplish double-digit scoring on seven occasions and nearly reached that mark another three times. He also managed at least five rebounds in 12 games last season.

Brandon is no doubt making significant strides, but it’s about maintaining those gains while avoiding the disappearing act that will be key for Johns heading into next season.

Brandon Wade’s potential

Being the coach’s kid can be tough. Other parents will opine they’re son is better and accuse the coach/coaches of bias towards they’re kin.

That pressure and animosity can grow, especially when the coach’s child isn’t receiving the accolades and stars donned on his teammates and opponents.

Brandon wasn’t given stars. The younger Wade did earn a scholarship from Duquesne, although that wasn’t his dream school. Michigan was the program he wanted, and he eventually obtained the ear of Beilein long enough to procure a spot on the roster as a walk-on. Because of his walk-on status, many fans will discount him, never considering Brandon as a future contributor, and believing it’s preposterous that he could start one day.

That same type of person also discounted Scottie Pippen, a walk-on at Central Arkansas, and Andre Drummond, a walk-on at UConn, and C.J. Lee, a former Michigan walk-on turned scholarship player and captain.

Walk-ons are only walk-ons until they’re not anymore.

When you listen to Brandon’s longtime mentor and coach speak about his son, you begin to realize that UM has a kid with tremendous potential.

“Brandon makes the right play pretty much all the time, he is a coach on the floor who can score it from 3,” coach Wade said. “(He can) get into the lane when he needs to but loves to make a play to set up his teammates for a bucket. If you surround Brandon with four guys that like to score you will have four happy guys on offense.”

To get started, however, Brandon Wade must first “adjust to the Big Ten style of play,” according to his father.  Once that happens, it should only be a matter of time before Brandon earns the trust of coach Howard and the minutes that come with it.