{"id":177889,"date":"2026-02-14T11:55:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T11:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/177889\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T11:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T11:55:27","slug":"leading-scorer-ty-laur-johnson-no-longer-with-usd-basketball-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/177889\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading scorer Ty-Laur Johnson no longer with USD basketball team"},"content":{"rendered":"

USD leading scorer Ty-Laur Johnson was not on the bench for the Toreros\u2019 71-58 win against Portland on Wednesday night, and he won\u2019t be for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Coach Steve Lavin confirmed the junior guard is no longer with the program, saying in a postgame interview:<\/p>\n

\u201cI met with Ty-Laur Johnson earlier this week. We had a productive conversation, an extensive meeting related to his future at USD. And we\u2019ve come to an understanding that it\u2019s best for Ty, at this juncture, to focus on his health and academics. \u2026 Naturally, we wish him well with all future endeavors.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Wednesday, Johnson no longer appeared on the men\u2019s basketball roster on USD\u2019s athletic website. A search for his bio linked to a dead page.<\/p>\n

Lavin did not specify the reasons behind Johnson\u2019s sudden dismissal, but a source close to the program indicated there have been a string of disciplinary issues with the two-time transfer who began his college career at Louisville before spending last season at Wake Forest.<\/p>\n

Johnson was averaging a team-high 14.6 points, 4.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game for USD. He had 11 games of 18 or more points, including a career-high 28 in a 96-92 win against Washington State on Jan. 21.<\/p>\n

His most memorable moment as a Torero came Dec. 19 at UCSD, when he banked in a 3-pointer with 0.5 seconds left for an improbable 82-80 win.<\/a><\/p>\n

Johnson was averaging a team-leading 28.0 minutes per game but played only five and didn\u2019t score in his final game for the 11-16 Toreros, an 83-63 loss at Loyola Marymount on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Argentine guard Juanse Gorosito started in Johnson\u2019s place against Portland and responded with 19 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals in 34 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think it was (an) adjustment for our coaching staff, for our players, because Ty is a member of our basketball family,\u201d Lavin said. \u201cIn his absence, I think in the first half, you could sense or kind of feel a disjointed element that comes with missing a teammate and the brotherhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is real. These guys have been through a lot, going back to the summer and into the fall in this basketball season. That lifetime relationship is still going to be in play, but it\u2019s better right now in our view for Ty to focus on academics so he can finish strong in that regard at USD, and his health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lavin said he expects Johnson to enter the transfer portal for his final season of eligibility and \u201ccontinue a career that has a bright future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, a four-star prep prospect from Brooklyn, N.Y., averaged 8.7 points per game at Louisville and 6.1 points at Wake Forest.<\/p>\n

He made headlines early in his freshman season when Louisville coach Kenny Payne was asked why Johnson played only sparingly in a close game against Bellarmine.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you ready for this?\u201d Payne replied<\/a>. \u201cI probably shouldn\u2019t tell you this: We didn\u2019t have the tights that he wanted, so he didn\u2019t know if he wanted to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, you heard it. We didn\u2019t have the tights that he wanted, that we\u2019ve never had for him, and he decided, \u2018I don\u2019t feel like I can go.\u2019 That\u2019s what young people do.\u201d<\/p>\n

USD is tied for eighth place in the WCC at 5-9 with four games remaining, beginning Sunday afternoon against USF.\u00a0The WCC tournament begins March 5 in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USD leading scorer Ty-Laur Johnson was not on the bench for the Toreros\u2019 71-58 win against Portland on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75,3425,51295,79286],"class_list":["post-177889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-toreros","tag-ty-laur-johnson","tag-usd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}