• Lady Bears’ Johnson now among NCAA’s top 20 all-time for career assists

    Niya Johnson

    At any level, there’s one skill a point guard must have to succeed: the ability to get the ball to a teammate who can score.

    As the recordbooks now show, the Lady Bears’ Niya Johnson does exactly that — better than almost anyone in women’s college basketball history.

    Tuesday night, the senior from Florida tied the Big 12 Conference career record for assists. She already owned the Baylor single-season and career records, having broken those marks a year ago as a junior; in fact, her 355 assists last season are the fourth-most in NCAA Division I history, and she’s on pace to break the NCAA single-season record this year.

    Johnson also now ranks among the top 20 in NCAA history in career assists, and at her current rate, she’ll finish her collegiate career among the top 5 all-time.

    And while she’s regularly throwing the ball all over the court, Johnson’s not just slinging the ball around carelessly; she ranked second in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio last season, and ranks third so far this year.

    Given that head coach Kim Mulkey was herself a Hall of Fame point guard, it shouldn’t be any surprise that her Lady Bears have featured strong play at the position. Three of Mulkey’s former point guards — Sheila Lambert, Angela Tisdale and Odyssey Sims — have been drafted by WNBA teams, and Johnson seems poised to join them.

    Sic ’em, Niya!