Illinois Basketball: Illini commit Morez Johnson starts well in final AAU season

Illinois basketball commit Morez Johnson has officially tipped off his final run of AAU ball.

Johnson runs with the Meanstreets of the Nike EYBL AAU league, and they have been in Atlanta, Georgia since April 21 playing against some of the best competition in the country. The Illini pledge is helping elevate his team thus far as well.

The Meanstreets have started the Atlanta session 2-1 with their only loss coming to NJ Scholars by five points. This 2-1 record has the Meanstreets in a solid fifth place in division A, which consists of 18 teams.

There is one final game of the session for the Meanstreets and that is against the Florida Rebels, who are also 2-1 in this session.

Morez Johnson is showing how impactful and efficient he can be for the Illinois basketball team

A big part of the solid start to the AAU season for the Meanstreets is the play of Johnson. The 6-foot-8 forward has put up some big numbers in a short amount of time on the court.

So far, through three games, Johnson is averaging 9.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists while seeing 19.7 minutes of action in each contest. He also has three blocks and two steals in the first three games.

Multiple things stand out to me about Johnson’s game. I am obviously loving the rebounding ability. He can use his size to get his way in the paint, but I think his efficiency around the hoop makes me the happiest.

Johnson is 12-of-18 from the floor in the first three games of the Atlanta session. That is 66.7% from the field, which is a great number. His worst game thus far is a 4-of-7 outing against Team WhyNot.

I am pleasantly surprised that Johnson can also make free throws. Usually, someone of his size isn’t solid from the charity stripe, but Johnson is 4-of-6 from the line and that includes a 4-of-4 game against Team WhyNot.

There is still one more game of this session before the Meanstreets move to session two this next weekend. Illinois fans should check out Johnson on the live stream on Sunday. This kid is the future of this program.