"It's our new reality that players who have developed as TY has will attract attention and other schools will try to poach them," Les noted.
"It's become a wild, wild West scenario, with NIL (name, image and likeness payments) becoming a recruiting tool. That's actually been going on for a long time, but now it's legal."
"He's an awesome young man, an awesome player and he put in a lot of hard work to get where he is today," Les added.
"We're hoping that if he stays, we can springboard him into playing at the next level. He certainly has the skills, the work ethic and the mentality to succeed."
"We need to keep doing what we do, which is developing young players and offering them a great education and a great basketball experience," said the Aggie coach.
"But we have to respond to our needs, too, and sometimes that is in the portal."
"I think this is a really hard decision for him," Les said of Johnson.
"We're in regular communication, and in his heart, I think he doesn't want to leave Davis. He loves it here and is thriving, but for a variety of reasons, he feels like he needs to test the market.
"I still believe this is the best place for him, but we just have to see how it plays out. He knows how much we appreciate him as a player and as a person. He's on an upward trajectory and we'd love to have him finish that ride here."
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