Flau’jae Johnson is not the average college athlete. She has a platform and a sense of pressure to which few collegiate athletes can relate.
Instead of coming back to her apartment after practice and doing homework or watching TV, she works on her music, where she has over 70,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
When it comes to time management, Johnson has it down to a science. It started at an early age when she adopted a strong work ethic and learned to hold herself accountable. That strong work ethic got her on America’s Got Talent for her rap music at just 14 years old.
That work ethic remained consistent as she grew up and went to high school at Sprayberry High School in Savannah, Georgia. Similarly to how she ended up on America’s Got Talent, Johnson’s work ethic got her an opportunity to play for Kim Mulkey at LSU.
“I had to learn to hold myself accountable. I learned that early…because nobody’s going to do that for me,” Johnson said. “And if I want the results that I want I have to do things I don’t want to do.”
Johnson was a key part of LSU’s national championship run last year, as she started as a freshman from the start of the season. It wasn’t because of her platform off the court, but her talent on the court.
She continued to bring a lot of eyes to the team, but Johnson excelled as a true freshman, averaging 11 points per game and 5.9 rebounds per game. In many games, Johnson was a lockdown defender that helped them in many games like the team’s home matchup against Tennessee, and in the national championship against Iowa.
After LSU won the women’s basketball national championship, Johnson’s platform grew bigger than the empire it already was. According to On3 Women’s NIL Top 100, Johnson ranks at No. 3 with an Name, Image and Likeness valuation of $1.1 million. In the same rankings, Angel Reese ranks at No. 2 with a $1.7 million valuation, and Hailey Van Lith ranks at No. 6 with a $562,000 valuation.
Johnson comes into this season with more eyes on her than ever before. She’s in a position few young adults find themselves in. But Johnson thinks of it as a privilege and a sign that she’s doing something right.
“When you have to be held accountable for something that means you’re doing something right, and we’re expected of something,” Johnson said. “Being expected of something is a privilege.”
There are more expectations placed on the Tigers than any other team in women’s college basketball. For the first time in program history, LSU enters the preseason as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation.
This being said, she and her teammates have seen a surplus of praise. But that praise also brings discouragement from some people. Rather than listen to the naysayers, Johnson thinks of it as a part of being in the place she’s in; there will be noise either way.
“We laugh at it. It comes with a territory,” Johnson said. “You do good, it’s going to come; you do bad, it’s going to come.”
With the expectations both on and off the court, Mulkey’s conversations with Johnson are unique to her alone, because of how much she has going on in her life.
However, Johnson’s priorities are straight, and they are even without Mulkey telling her. With her discipline, this is just another year in Johnson’s career. Mulkey is supportive of all of Johnson’s off-the-court endeavors, but as her head coach, her job is to make sure that the majority of Johnson’s focus is on basketball.
“She says, ‘Keep the main things the main things and stay focused,'” Johnson said. “‘Basketball first, everything else can wait.’”
Johnson is very in tune with herself, and a lot of that was learned through the platform she has and how much she has to handle. It’s helped in her basketball career, her academics and her music.
Her mindset is a “tunnel vision.” She knows her support system, she knows her priorities and she knows who to listen to and who not to listen to. Everything else on the outside only contributes to the focus she has. In other words, it’s all fuel to the fire.
“It makes me concentrate more because I know somebody wants to find something to say about that,” Johnson said. “It keeps me more on track and more focused.”
But she would be lying if she said her routine was easy. It’s difficult to be a full-time student, a Division I basketball player and an up-and-coming music producer. For most, pursuing just one of those roles would present a challenge.
Johnson, however, is confident that it’s nothing she can’t handle. She knows it’s a lifestyle not meant for many, and she tells herself if she puts in hours that not many would be willing to put in, she’ll get places not many can get to.
“If everybody can do it, then it would be done,” Johnson said. “It’s just something that will make me better for it, put in that pain.”
Johnson is one of the returners to this year’s team, which is full of new faces. So even though she’s only entering her second season, she may have to be a leader in some cases.
Regardless, Johnson will be a valuable part of LSU’s team this season, only bringing more eyes to her, her teammates and women’s college basketball.
