If he gets a good fall recruiting class of at least 4 guys and it feels like he has started a future here- the pressure will be off and I don't think you will see that. Lousy recruiting class? Yep, it will be ugly.
I think it's unfair for fans to put too high of expectations on Johnson's initial recruiting classes. Let's revisit Pitino's first two
full recruiting classes.
First Class:
Nate Mason: good, but not great, Big Ten player
Josh Martin: left the team before the second semester and had a mediocre mid-major career
Carlos Morris: decent junior year after transferring but kicked off the team as a senior
Bakary Konate: had potential but never really developed and remained well below average for his career
Gaston: virtually worthless
Second Class:
Jordan Murphy: had as good of a career as we could have expected and then some
Dupree McBrayer: a below average Big Ten player
Ahmad Gilbert: absolutely not a power conference player and he didn't even do very well at Rider after transferring; he ended his career outside of D1
Dorsey: a total head case who wasn't very good his freshman year and completely squandered his opportunities afterward
I believe Jonathan Nwankwo was also in that recruiting class but I think he had trouble getting admitted. He went to VCU, redshirted his freshman year, transferred to a junior college after that and played one year. Transferred to Kent State and played very little there. Finished his career at an NAIA school.
Appraisal:
So there you have it. Pitino's first two recruiting classes resulted in two players of high quality who played four years and another slightly below average player who played four years. Two other players remained for four years but one was worthless and the other was well below average for his career. One player had a fair first year but didn't make it two full years after transferring from junior college. Two players didn't make it beyond their first year here and another one didn't manage to get admitted. Another player stayed two years but wasn't good enough to play significant minutes at the D1 level.
Now, consider that these recruiting classes came after a period of decent success. The first one followed an NIT championship and an NCAA tournament berth (with a win) the season before that. The second followed that period and a disappointing, but not losing, overall season.
Bottom line is that I don't feel I should hold Johnson to higher standards for initial recruiting than Pitino achieved (although I certainly hope he can do better) especially since I believe he faces a much tougher initial situation.