Coming to college often means learning a new city and figuring out what to do with newfound free time, but unlike most freshman, Johnson spends her free time at Breslin Center.

The guard is one of three freshmen — along with forward Becca Mills and center Jasmine Hines — who were tasked with replacing senior captains Kalisha Keane, Cetera Washington and Brittney Thomas from last season’s Big Ten Championship team.

Head coach Suzy Merchant said she was nervous about how her youngest players would respond to the challenge.

“Because you’ve played in some big games in high school and some big AAU games, you think you’ve got it, but this is a different thing,” she said. “The scouting is more intense, the practices are definitely more aggressive and it’s a long season. So I wasn’t sure how they’d develop over time.”

To her surprise, the three freshman have joined together to become a crucial part of a team looking to defend it’s conference title.

Doing what she loves
Growing up on the north side of Chicago, Johnson was looking for an outlet to keep her away from the bad things she saw in her neighborhood and a way to spend time with her older brothers.

Following her brothers, Lugene and Ladell, around wherever she could, Johnson started going with them to the local park and instantly fell in love with the game of basketball.

It wasn’t until she turned eight years old that her mom finally let her go to the park by herself, and it didn’t take long for her to turn her local court into a second home.

“It was just all I wanted to do all the time,” she said. “I’d be in the park until the street lights come on, and that’s when I had to be in the house. I remember one night — me and my brother, Lugene — we stayed outside till 10, we got in a lot of trouble for it, but we (were) on the court all night just hooping, … just doing stuff to get me better.”

By the time she was midway through high school Johnson was being recruited by major college basketball programs, allowing her to dream for the first time about what her future might hold.

“Honestly, I never really thought about playing college basketball,” she said. “It (wasn’t) until my junior year when it hit me, ‘I’m getting college letters and I can actually go to school for free, just because I’m doing what I love to do.’”

Johnson originally planned to attend Miami, but a meeting with MSU Director of Student-Athlete Development Angela Howard-Montie changed her mind.

In the meeting, Johnson learned that one of the team’s psychologists also works with NFL and NBA players and, as an aspiring psychology student, she said it instantly drew her to MSU.

Looking for a point guard to replace Thomas, Merchant said she saw a lot of herself in the brash Johnson, who occasionally caps off an assist with a general’s salute.

“Kiana has a swagger about her; she’s not afraid of anybody (or) any team,” Merchant said. “Her personality — it just lights up the room. She has fun when she plays; she’s got that competitive spirit to her.”

Although her teammates know her as the girl who can’t stop talking, Johnson said it took her a while to open up.

“On my visit, I didn’t say a word,” she said. “(But) once I got around the girls and started to know everybody, my personality came out. If I see something and I feel strongly about it … I want to get my point across, and I won’t stop until I get my point across.”

Until it’s perfect
Hines was always the biggest kid in the small town of Central Lake, Mich., where she said everyone knows everyone.

She would urge her father to shoot baskets with her before work, and it was in the hours outside their house that she said she grew to love the game.

“When I was little my dad — before he would go to work — we would always play in the driveway,” she said. “We would play around the world, and I wouldn’t let him leave until I (made a shot from every spot).

Because of her immense size and strength — having once scored 53 points in a high school game — Hines received calls from coaches from around the country on a regular basis, leading her to keep her phone turned off so she could get away from it.

But after receiving a scholarship offer from her childhood favorite Spartans, Hines knew where she wanted to play.

It wasn’t until she came to MSU that she learned she would be sharing a dorm with Mills, who she somewhat jokingly called her enemy in high school.

“We were always enemies in high school,” she said with a laugh. “We were supposed to hate each other, but I never had anything against her. That’s not my personality, I guess.”

The two quickly bonded over their mutual cleanliness and their aversion to loud music in their dorm and have become close friends, although Hines said she still has one issue with Mills.

“(I’ve been) locked out of the dorm by Becca a couple times,” she said. “I’ll be over in (a friend’s) room or something and she’ll just go to bed and lock the door. I’ll literally beat down the door for five minutes and she’s such a deep sleeper she won’t hear me, so I’ll have to go down and rent a key; it’s just a mess.”

It’s in her blood
Raised by former college basketball players and standing six-feet tall in sixth grade, Mills knew early on that basketball was her game.

After a dominating a middle school game, Mills said a referee came up to her after to tell her about her potential, and it was the first time she thought about being good enough to play college basketball.

Having grown up a lifelong MSU fan, Mills said she thought deciding on a school would be relatively easy, but after speaking to coaches from Stanford and Louisville, she began to waver.

Trying to reach a decision, Mills sought the advice of fellow players during a visit to MSU.

“They said the thing that made them decide was thinking of the school that would make (them) absolutely heartbroken if (their) spot was taken away,” she said. “I thought about it and it was Michigan State, so I committed two days later.”

Although she now stands six-feet four-inches tall, Merchant said it was Mills diverse skill set that first caught her eye.

“She’s got a tremendous ability to score the ball,” Merchant said. “From drives, to 3-point shots, to back-to-the-basket — her skill set (is) very high.”

The seamless transition by the freshman class hasn’t been a surprise for Mills, who said she believes the best is yet to come for the freshman class and the program.

“I knew (we) had the capability of doing this, and it’s a good sign of what’s to come,” she said. “We’re just freshmen, and we’re going to keep working at it. I think a lot of good things are going to happen for our program.”