I think it’s safe to say that James Johnson is on his way to becoming a mega-star in the Northeast Conference after his Reggie Miller-type performance Saturday against Mount St. Mary’s.

In case you missed it, Johnson scored eight points in the final minute of the game, including a game-winning lay up off a steal. So it leads me to wonder which performance was better, Miller’s against the Knicks back in the ‘95 playoffs, or Johnson’s?
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I know that if I am a Pacers fan and I see Reggie knock down eight points in an 8.9-second span, I’m probably throwing everything around me in excitement and looking to spear the first Knicks fan in sight.

For Johnson’s eight points, well let’s face it, I reacted the way anyone should have, by finishing my newly cracked Keystone and cursing about how good my boy James Johnson is.

Not only do I hate the Pacers, but for the Bobcats to win their first conference game in that fashion just gets me all geared up for the rest of this season.

By no means will Quinnipiac get an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament. We all know that our NEC play is what will get us to the dance. So when players like Johnson step up in the clutch, it just proves how far Quinnipiac basketball has actually come. We now have players who can step up, and produce championship type performances – performances that will bring us into March Madness.

Now that the Shaquille O’Neal (Rutty) of the NEC has his Kobe Bryant (Johnson), I don’t think it’s too greedy to think we can not only make it to March Madness, but also win a game.

Winning depends on the matchup come tournament time, and now the Bobcats seem to have what every great team does, a player who can demand the ball in the biggest moments, and put the team on his back. When March rolls around, some poor team like Kentucky won‘t know what hit them.