If you’ve watched more than five minutes of an Auburn basketball game over the last two seasons, it’s no secret that K.D. Johnson plays passionately and enthusiastically. His zeal for the game shows when he drives to the basket with speed and fury or makes a big defensive play.

“He’s really good in the locker room. He’s really good with his teammates,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said after the Tigers’ victory against Iowa. “He’s a really good friend to a lot of the guys. He plays with a lot of emotion and a lot of passion. And he giveth and he taketh away. And he’s been givething more lately.”

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Johnson can emote with his words or with his demeanor. His smile is ebullient when things are going well; when they aren’t, his disappointment is equally noticeable. If one wants to know how Auburn (21-12) is doing, all one would have to do is look at Johnson, the thermometer of the Tigers.

“He’s great for our team,” Tre Donaldson said, who scored 11 points in the win against Iowa. “He works hard, and his energy is unmatched.

Auburn needed Johnson to step up during Thursday’s 83-75 win against Iowa at Legacy Arena in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. He responded with 11 points off the bench on 4-7 shooting and 2-4 from the three-point line. Johnson’s performance was a testament to his willingness to sacrifice. He was a starter on last season’s team but switched to a sixth-man role this season.

Adjusting to coming off the bench wasn’t easy for Johnson. He went from scoring over 12 points a night last season as the team’s second-leading scorer to a tough stretch after scoring 14 points in the December 10 loss against Memphis, where he didn’t score in double digits until the January 28 loss against West Virginia.

“I started off the season kind of sluggish, and I wasn’t there for my team,” Johnson said. “I wanted to pay them back with giving 110 percent with my myself, my body, my mind, everything, just to do whatever to make us go farther in this March Madness.”

Auburn advanced in front of a heavily partisan audience a little under two hours from Neville Arena. Johnson was one of six Tigers to score double-digits in the win. Getting the victory was redemptive in a season that saw the Tigers lose several close games. They held leads against No.1 Alabama in both games that ended in defeat for the squad.

There were opportunities for the Tigers to improve their seeding, but Johnson and his teammates can’t look backward because, on Saturday, No.9 seed Auburn faces No.1-seed Houston.

“It’s March. So we won our first game this season through all the ups and downs we had in the previous time we had in the start of the season,” Johnson said. “So now that we’re in March, we’ve got a new leaf, and it starts off 0-0. So we feel good.”

Nubyjas Wilborn covers Auburn for Alabama Media Group