Adrienne Johnson’s journey from Louisville to Columbus to the WNBA and back

Kentucky is a state that’s basketball crazed. It’s up there with Indiana as a spot where even football is known to take a backseat. On Wednesday, the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes women’s basketball team makes the three-hour trip to the basketball country of the south to take on No. 18 Louisville Cardinals.

On the bench for the ACC side, entering the season fresh off a 2022 Final Four run, is a familiar name to the Buckeyes program. They aren’t a transfer player or Central Ohio high school phenom who moved out of state. It’s Assistant Athletic Director and coach Adrienne Johnson.

Ohio State’s women’s basketball program is known for a handful of future WNBA players, but making an impact before any of them was Johnson. The first Buckeye to score a point in the WNBA took a different road, one that led outside of Kentucky, before going back home and making an impact on future generations.

Choosing Ohio State

Johnson is from Louisville, Kentucky and is Louisville, Kentucky. Born in the city on the Ohio River, Adrienne attended high school in Louisville, four miles down the road from the University of Louisville, and has worked for the University for 17 years. When it came time for the standout basketball player to choose a school, there was one decision absolutely clear.

“I was a Louisville fan, I’d be damned if I go to Kentucky, right,” said Johnson, laughing. “I just could not see myself in blue. There, I said it!”

With one easy choice out of the way, there was Western Kentucky, the home for most of the talented in-state players, the University of Louisville or a box full of letters from other schools wanting Johnson on their team.

At the time, in the early 1990s, the University of Louisville Cardinals women’s basketball team weren’t the side they are today. The Cardinals were part of the Metro Conference, before joining Conference USA in 1996, still 18 years away from their standard today as a perennial NCAA Tournament team from the ACC.

Instead of staying in-state, Johnson joined another campus that despised the color blue when she joined coach Nancy Darsch and the 1992-93 Ohio State Buckeyes. For the 5-foot-10 guard, choosing Ohio State was clear, and it wasn’t strictly based on competitive reasons.

“I didn’t know much about Ohio State,” said Johnson. “It just felt good. I loved the way the players treated me, I felt like I was part of something.”

It was also a safety. In a short period of time, in a blue chip college combine, Johnson made a bond with future Buckeye teammates and paid dividends immediately.

Johnson joined the same season as legendary Scarlet & Gray guard Smith, playing part in the Buckeyes run to the NCAA Championship. Even though Ohio…