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PORTLAND, Ore. — At some point Saturday night, before the biggest game of Logan Johnson’s career, the Saint Mary’s guard will recite 136 words.

The 136 words are a poem, authored on the deathbed of Creighton Lane, a mentor and coach from Johnson’s youth in California. In his final days of battling stomach cancer, Lane recorded the poem, which was played at his 2014 funeral. The words resonated so deeply with Johnson that he has never let them go.

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As a sophomore at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, Calif., Johnson was tasked to do a school project on someone who had influenced his life. He chose Lane, and used his final poem to illustrate his impact. The next season, Johnson began reciting Lane’s final poem before every basketball game.

“It’s something special to me, part of my pregame routine,” Johnson said.

So Saturday night, before Johnson leads fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s against No. 4 UCLA with a berth in the Sweet 16 at stake, he will say the poem, all 136 words. Just like he has done since he was a junior in high school.

“It’s something to calm me down, something that lets me know everything is all right,” Johnson said. “I can feel his hands on my shoulders, just watching over me, and I know I’m making him proud.”

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Johnson refers to Lane as “Uncle Creighton,” and he credits him for instilling a toughness and work ethic into his fiber. Those traits have translated to the Gaels (26-7), who largely point to Johnson as the reason they are so dedicated and hard-nosed in their approach.

Uncle Creighton forged Johnson’s hard edge and toughness over time, with Johnson estimating his first lesson came at age 7. Even at that early age, he was a gym rat, tagging along with older brother Tyler (who would go on to play in the NBA) for training sessions with Lane. Even though Tyler was seven years older, Logan wanted to do the same drills, which humored Uncle Creighton.

“He would tell me, ‘You can never work out with me. I will tear you down. I will make you cry,”’ Johnson said.

One day Johnson tried to join the drills. He wanted to prove he belonged. To prove he could take it.

“We were doing this full-court drill and I kept airballing shots, airballing shots,” Johnson said. “And I got tears running out of my eyes, and I was saying ‘I don’t want to do it any more …”’

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But Creighton wouldn’t allow him to quit. Wouldn’t allow him to feel sorry for himself.

“He was kind of the guy who instilled toughness into me,” Johnson said. “He really epitomized working hard, work ethic, and no matter how successful you got, always be level-headed. So he instilled all that into me as a youngin’, and I’ve always tried to carry his legacy and remain tough.”

On Saturday, 15 years after that first lesson, Johnson will summon that toughness and strength by reciting Lane’s final poem. Sometimes he does it in the locker room. Other times on the bench. And often he does it during the national anthem.

“I’ll close my eyes and take myself to a place,” Johnson said.

He says the words in his head, and sometimes mouths them as he goes through all 136 words. On Friday, he recited them without pausing:

When my time around here is done I would hope for you not to be sad

Instead give thanks and rejoice for the wonderful days we have had

Remember it is in His time we are called home to lay down

Do not feel as if I have been cheated

I am not lost but instead I am found

When the day comes for us to meet in the Kingdom of the Lord, 

Believe me when I say it’s where your deeds do not go ignored

Know it was a blessing to have lived and shared with you

I am with the angels now, watching over what you do

Of course all will be missed, so take care, be all you can be

Give thanks and know that the Father is now looking out for me

On the inside of Johnson’s right wrist, tattooed in black ink, is his favorite line of the poem — “I am with the angels now, watching over what you do.”

The tattoo reminds him, and motivates him in the hardest of times. Through times of pain, apathy, exhaustion and doubt, he looks to his wrist and thinks of Uncle Creighton and for what he stood.

“When I’m working out, and I don’t want to do it, or when I feel lazy, it’s something I can go back to and just know it’s not something Creighton Arthur Lane would approve of,” Johnson said. “So, he’s always on my mind. It’s easy to go out and play … but it’s the times when you are broken down. The dark times, the times you are in the gym crying. In the gym just letting it rip … that’s when I think about it.”

Lane was a large man but also a teddy bear who wrote poems as a hobby. At his memorial service, students and teachers remembered how he patrolled the halls of Wilcox High and remembered birthdays, or would pay for lunches if kids didn’t have the money. Today, the court at the school is named after him and a foundation in his name — Pay It 4ward — awards scholarships to students.

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“I understand the importance of the legacy he has passed down to so many,” Johnson said. “And it means enough to me that I feel I need to say his poem before every game. It’s something that needs to be carried on.”

The tattoo on the inside of his right wrist isn’t the only ink that has meaning to Johnson.

In honor of his mother, Jennifer, both he and brother Tyler have the Air Force logo tattooed on their right shoulder. Jennifer served 31 years in the Air Force, which Johnson said included multiple tours in Iraq.

“It’s to give praise and thanks to her for everything she has done,” Johnson said.

If Uncle Creighton instilled into Johnson toughness on the court, Jennifer ingrained toughness in his core.

Jennifer, who is in Portland with Tyler for Saturday’s game against UCLA, raised five children as a single parent, and there were times when things weren’t easy. Be it food, transportation, attention … not everything was always at the ready. But if Logan or any of the other kids complained, they soon learned the same advice was coming from their mom.

“Get a straw, suck it up,” Johnson said, smiling. “She says it all the time. So, you know, ‘Mom, I’m tired … Mom, I’m hungry …’ it was ‘Get a straw, suck it up. I didn’t raise no chump.’ It’s just always something that has been a part of my family.”

When Jennifer was overseas, the five kids lived on the Moffett Air Force Base, and made do with help from family and neighbors, and the guidance of the oldest brother, Brandon, who is now 31. Johnson said the kids not only developed some toughness, but they also came to understand the meaning of family.

“We have worked for everything; we were given nothing,” Johnson said. “Growing up, in a household of five kids, we have always sacrificed and looked out for one another.”

That often meant cooking their own meals. And it often meant there wasn’t enough to go around.

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“We didn’t know how to make everything in the world, so we were making Top Ramen, Pop-Tarts, whatever was the easiest to make,” Johnson said. “And there would be times when you had to ration. You just learn to sacrifice for the rest.”

He is proud of his mother, and marveled at how she could be in Iraq and yet know each of her five children’s daily schedule.

“Like the back of her hand,” Johnson said. “We learned that nothing is a given, and you have to sacrifice everything for your loved ones.”

That feeling is why he knows he is in the right place. Saint Mary’s is not just his school. Not just his team. It has become family.

When Johnson first arrived at Saint Mary’s before the 2019-20 season, he wasn’t sure about what he was getting himself into.

He had transferred from Cincinnati after coach Mick Cronin left to become the coach at UCLA, and when he arrived on the Moraga, Calif., campus he was stunned by the camaraderie of the Gaels.

The players congregated for Thanksgiving. Christmas. The Super Bowl. Movies. Dinner.

“When I first got here, I was sick of it,” Johnson said laughing. “Yeah, I was sick of it. I was like, yo, I see you guys waaaaay too much.”

But then he began to notice the same traits as back home, on the Air Force base. There was sacrifice. Looking out for one another. Being there in times of need.

“It brought me back to what I had always been a part of when I was home,” Johnson said. “There was that real family feel. It really is a family bond like no other.”

Eight of the Gaels’ players are from Turkey, Estonia, Lithuania, Australia or New Zealand, which Johnson says has reinforced the importance of being there for teammates.

“We have so many people who are from overseas, and they don’t get to see their families. They sacrifice more than anybody,” Johnson said. “So we always look out for each other, we are constantly together, constantly having team events. And when you do that, you are able to talk about anything with these guys, and I think that translates to the court.”

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He shakes his head and chuckles again at how he thought it was too much, and too weird when he first arrived.

“That family feel and that loving environment is something you don’t understand until you actually come here and are a part of it,” Johnson said.

Saturday night, Saint Mary’s will be trying to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second time in school history, and the first since 2010.

If they are to beat Cronin and the Bruins, Johnson, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, knows the victory will have to be rooted in defense. Although he led Saint Mary’s with 20 points in the first-round blowout of Indiana, his greatest contribution is how he guards.

“When I came to Saint Mary’s I did a lot of soul searching to find where I needed to help this team,” Johnson said. “At that time, we had Jordan Ford and Malik Fitts — elite, elite college players who could score at the highest level — but there seemed to be something that wasn’t there … a toughness on defense every possession. So I knew coming in that was where I could instantly make my stamp.”

He’s done more than make a stamp. He has helped create a defensive, tough-minded culture. The Gaels call it “Gritty, not pretty.”

That’s not to say there aren’t beautiful moments. In the 82-53 win over Indiana on Thursday, Johnson converted a pretty alley-oop pass from backcourt partner Tommy Kuhse for a layin.

“It was funny, I got a text after the game from one of my brother’s coaches about the alley-oop,” Johnson said. “And he said, ‘You know Creighton would be pissed that you didn’t dunk it.’ And I couldn’t help but laugh.”

Come Saturday night, Johnson knows Uncle Creighton will once again be on his mind. He will be there before the game during his poem. And if times get rough, he will look at his right wrist. And when it is all said and done, Johnson knows he will play with the effort and toughness that Uncle Creighton helped instill.

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“Win, lose or draw, I know he is watching over me,” Johnson said. “And I know he is proud, regardless.”

(Top photo: Isaiah Vazquez / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

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