While competing in three different athletic conferences during her five-year collegiate career, Norfolk State point guard Diamond Johnson stockpiled nearly every individual conference award a player could earn.
As a freshman at Rutgers in 2020-21, she earned a spot on the All-Big Ten Second Team and the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. In two seasons at NC State, she collected Atlantic Coast Conference Sixth Player of the Year and All-ACC Second Team honors, and in two seasons at Norfolk State, Johnson took home Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year and Player of the Year honors.
Johnson hopes her prowess on the court will allow her to become the next player from a historically Black college to be selected during the WNBA draft on April 14.
Johnson said she has received interest from WNBA teams. However, she hasn’t closely followed mock drafts and expert predictions on the 36 players who will hear their names called. Instead, she’s intentionally trusting the work and effort that she put in during the offseason and the regular season.
She is confident that her time at Norfolk State has prepared her to play professional basketball.
“I did things [at Norfolk State] that I haven’t done in my whole college career – or any other school – that I did here, and I’m definitely proud of that for sure,” Johnson said. “Here you just gotta go get it. You gotta get it on the court, you got to get it off the court. It gets you uncomfortable. It gets you out of your comfort zone.”
Johnson had a strong showing in front of WNBA scouts at the Lilly Women’s College All-Star Game, which took place in Tampa, Florida, during the women’s Final Four this past weekend. She earned MVP honors after scoring 21 points and completing 9 of 13 shots, including the game-winning 3-pointer.
Johnson also was selected to the inaugural HBCU Women’s All-Star Game, where she was on Team Yolanda Laney. Laney, a member of the Cheyney State team that reached the NCAA national championship game in 1982, coached Johnson as a youth on a Philadelphia elite AAU program and believes Johnson should at minimum end up at a WNBA training camp.
“Don’t look at Diamond because of her height and her size, look at her because of her talent. Her talent is tremendous,” Laney said. “She’s a playmaker with the ball. She can shine [as a starter] but she doesn’t have to, and that’s the difference when you look at players on the court. Diamond shines all the time, whether she’s scoring or not, just from the things that she does on the court.”
At NC State two seasons ago, Johnson was considered one of the top players in women’s college basketball. However, former Norfolk State head coach Larry Vickers said he watched Johnson’s draft position drop since she committed to the historically Black college in 2023. Vickers, who coached Johnson for two seasons, pleaded Johnson’s case after the Spartans’ first-round exit in the NCAA tournament in March.
“I’ve watched her go from seventh in the first round when she got to me and [she] dropped and dropped,” Vickers said after the NCAA tournament. “And I don’t know why.”
To Vickers and Trinese Fox, Norfolk State’s associate head coach for player development, Johnson is a player worthy of being drafted.
“She’s the hardest worker that I’ve seen in a long time, not even just on the court, but the basketball thing. She wants to watch film, she takes care of her body. She takes everything serious,” Fox said. “So when we say she’s a pro, it’s not just on-the-court skill set, like, that’s the way she walks it, she talks it.”
Fox helped facilitate Johnson’s growth from her first season with the Spartans to her final year with the program. Johnson and Fox spent countless hours in the gym together working to improve Johnson’s shooting percentage, which increased from 43.3% a year ago to 47% this season.
Despite the Spartans’ loss to Maryland in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Johnson’s play against Maryland’s Shyanne Sellers, who’s listed as a first-round WNBA draft pick on mock draft boards, reaffirmed Fox’s belief that Johnson would be successful at the next level.
“A lot of people talk about Diamond’s size, but we see her play against somebody in the first round on draft lists right now, and we see her excel against other players that they talk about,” Fox said. “So for her not to be on draft boards is 100% disappointing, but we’re going to do what we can to promote her. She’s gonna still put in work and have that same expectation to be drafted.”
Norfolk State forward Kierra Wheeler said Johnson made an immense impact both on and off the court. Off the court, Johnson embraced HBCU culture and built strong relationships with her teammates, and on the court she pushed her teammates to be better.
“Diamond’s work ethic is something that should never go unnoticed. She’s always the first one to get to the gym and the last to leave, embodying that ‘grind’ mentality,” Wheeler said. “Even though she’s already a 3-level scorer, she’s constantly working to elevate her game. She’s always chasing perfection, showing that there’s always room to improve no matter how skilled you become.”
In addition to raising her field goal percentage, this season Johnson also increased her total points scored, rebounds, assists and steals from year one with the Spartans. Johnson finished fifth in the conference in total rebounds this season (213), and she’s the only player in the top five in the conference for total rebounds who is under 6 feet tall. (Her Norfolk State bio lists her at 5-foot-5.)
“I think that comes from the score mentality, like, wherever the ball is, I want to get it,” Johnson said. “I want to be down there with the big girls. I want to box them out. I want to be aggressive. Like, that’s the type of player that I am. … I don’t care if you’re 6 foot, I’m still gonna go at you.”
Greg Fiume / NCAA Photos via Getty Images
If Johnson were to hear her name called, she would be the first WNBA draft pick to come out of Norfolk State, as well as the first MEAC player to be drafted in two decades. The last MEAC player drafted, Howard’s Andrea Gardner, was selected in the 2002 WNBA draft.
“To be able to hear Diamond’s name called during the draft would be such a moment of immense pride and excitement for not only myself but the whole NSU community,” Norfolk State guard Niya Fields said. “I would be extremely joyful knowing that she is achieving her goals and knowing she still deserves more. And not only would hearing her name highlight her talent, but it would also highlight NSU women’s basketball program as well as every HBCU women’s basketball program on a larger scale.”
Johnson believes she can be a versatile player who can contribute to a WNBA team as either a starter or role player.
“I was always confident in my skill set and what I can do, offensively, defensively, being a leader, just being an all-around player and just having those characteristics,” Johnson said. “Whatever you need me to do, I can do it. … Throughout my years of college, I think I’ve kind of shown that.”