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Robin Bryce's phone rang last Wednesday afternoon, hours before the UA tipped off at Arizona State.

Kevin O'Neill, the UA's interim head coach, wanted to play her son, Zane Johnson, that night. His team was depleted by an injury to Jerryd Bayless and the transfer of Laval Lucas-Perry. O'Neill wanted to use four guards against the Sun Devils. He wanted to play Johnson — who had been redshirting this season — off the bench.

"My feelings were, that it was so late in the season I didn't want him to do it unless Zane was going to get significant playing time," she said. "I didn't want them to burn his redshirt and give him two minutes a game — or sometimes none."

O'Neill said Johnson would play about 10 minutes per game, Bryce said. She consented.

Johnson has averaged five minutes per game in his first two appearances and appears to have slid into the UA's rotation as the Wildcats travel to Stanford to play Thursday. The sure-shot freshman's playing time could increase when the team plays against zone defenses — but he figures to play some the rest of the way.

"He's gonna get in every game," O'Neill said Tuesday.

Earlier in the season, Johnson was fine with redshirting. He is extraordinarily young for a college player, having turned 18 in August — almost a full year after Bayless. Plus, Johnson needed to work on his defense and to find his role.

When Johnson began practice, he was overly concerned with guarding his man in the team's defensive set — trying to not call attention to himself by getting beat. He hesitated to leave his man to help a teammate who got beat.

"It's a team game — I figured that out after the first couple weeks," Johnson said.

"(O'Neill) is a lot more enthusiastic with you if you're on the 'help line' and you actually get a charge, rather than your man scoring."

Johnson said he arrived early to practice just to work on his defense with O'Neill. He learned where to position himself defensively when his man did not have the ball.

"If you're in the right position off the ball, then you often times have a better chance of guarding your man on the ball," O'Neill said.

In mid-December, Johnson turned a corner and has improved incrementally since. Those closest to him are not surprised.

His mom paints a picture of a basketball-obsessed boy who used to watch Mike Bibby play high school ball. When Johnson was in high school, his mom bought him two passes to L.A. Fitness so Johnson and a friend could play basketball all they wanted. Problem was, Johnson could never find a friend devoted enough to go with him every time.

Buddy Rake, his coach at Phoenix's Thunderbird High School, tells the story of a tough prep player who played his sophomore year with a broken nose — "His nose was shoved up underneath his forehead," he said — and his junior year with a broken hand. As a junior, Johnson was benched by his coach for the first quarter, and came out to score 20 points in the second quarter alone.

"This is my 20th year," Rake said. "I've only had one Zane Johnson."

Johnson averaged 23.6 points per game as a senior and 23.0 as a junior. Still, Rake suspects Johnson was never really comfortable as the team's only go-to player.

"As a person, I've grown," Johnson said Monday. "I've been more of a teammate. In high school, the load was mainly on me. Now that I'm here, I've learned to trust my teammates more and just be able to play more as a team player."

Johnson's role the rest of the season will not be sexy. He gives O'Neill an extra body with which to replace guard Jawann McClellan and swingman Chase Budinger, who each play about 35 minutes a game.

"Throughout the season, someone like me or Jawann … it's really gonna wear on us and kinda kill us toward the end of the season," Budinger said. "We really can't play that many minutes. Zane playing really takes a lot off of us."

Johnson laughed that he got off to a bad start. The first time he touched the ball against Arizona State — in his hometown — he turned it over. He missed his first shot, hitting the side of the backboard. But Johnson made his next three-point attempt.

After the game, a friend text-messaged him his stat line — including the turnover — and typed "Great job," sarcastically.

"Nerves, man," Johnson said, smiling.

Johnson has reason to stay confident. Practices do not seem so fast anymore, and games will start to become more routine.

"After this road trip," he said, "I should be good and settled in."