About three weeks removed from the end of a 2021-22 campaign in which the Duquesne’s men’s basketball program went 6-24, the team has another player that will not be returning to the program next season.
On Monday, Pittsburgh Sports Now’s George Michalowski reported that Jackie Johnson III will enter the transfer portal after one year with the Dukes.
Johnson, a native of Wichita, Kan., committed to Duquesne after playing in high school at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va.
He helped lead Hargrave to a 31-1 mark in the 2020-21 season, a year in which he averaged over 27 points and six assists per game.
Oak Hill Academy — which produced big-time National Basketball Association names like Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and Rajon Rondo — was no match for Johnson. In a scrimmage against Oak Hill early in the 2020-21 season, he dropped 54 points and added nine rebounds.
In his lone season at Duquesne, Johnson was one of five Dukes to appear in all 30 games, as he averaged 19.3 minutes per game.
The first-year guard started in 11 of the team’s 30 contests, seeing his name in the starting five in eight consecutive contests between Dec. 11 and Jan. 29.
Johnson averaged 9.5 points per game, scoring in double figures on 13 occasions. In the season’s final four games, he averaged 17.5 points per contest, including a career-high 30-point performance in a triple-overtime loss to George Washington on March 2.
He also scored 27 points on two separate occasions (Nov. 15 against Weber State, Jan. 8 against Massachusetts).
Johnson ranked fifth on the team in scoring, while leading the Dukes in made 3-point field goals with 41.
Johnson became the second Duquesne player to enter the portal following the season’s end. He joined Toby Okani, who announced his intentions to transfer on March 14.
Last week, PSN also reported that the program contacted Mike Saunders Jr., a Cincinnati transfer who scored 7.3 points per game for the Bearcats in 2021-22.
Duquesne had also reached out to DeAndre Gholston, a Milwaukee transfer who averaged 14.3 points per game last year. Gholston ultimately committed to Missouri.
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