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Senior guard Marcus Johnson is undoubtedly one of the best players on the team, a role he has accepted and played mostly throughout his illustrious career at Dayton.

In fact, one could even argue he is one of best players to ever come through UD in the Brian Gregory era.

However, the times where Johnson has struggled in his career are interestingly enough in the Flyers' biggest non-conference games.

Excluding his freshman year, because it's hard to truly judge a player straight out of high school, Johnson is averaging just 6.6 points a game against the likes of Louisville, Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Marquette, Creighton, West Virginia, Kansas, Villanova and Georgia Tech.

In those games, UD holds a 5-4 record.

In his sophomore season, Johnson was held to just four and nine points against Louisville and Ohio State, respectively. However, it was also in the 2007 season where MJ did have his best "big game moment" when he dropped 15 in UD's 25 point rout over Pitt at UD Arena.

In last year's NCAA tournament, Johnson did scratch out double figures against West Virginia with 10, but Kansas held him to just two in the second round.

Then in the latest installment of UD's "big" games, he was held scoreless in the Georgia Tech game before scoring just five against Villanova in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament.

These are some shocking numbers considering how successful Johnson has been in his three plus years, and Wednesday night in Oxford, he became just the 41st player in Flyer basketball history to reach the 1,000 point plateau.

As if those credentials weren't enough, Johnson is second only to LeBron James on his high school's all-time scoring list.

So why then, with all his success, does he seem to struggle most when the stage is the brightest?

Perhaps it's other teams showing their respect by making sure he doesn't beat them. Maybe even Johnson has just deferred to his teammates to carry the team in these games, and it's just a matter of time before he has a career game against a top out of conference opponent.

After all, MJ has had several defining moments in Atlantic 10 play. Take last year for example, when it was Johnson's tip in at the buzzer that gave the Flyers a win on the road against LaSalle.

Or look at the Xavier games of Johnson's career, which most UD fans will probably tell you mean even more than any non-conference game. In the past two seasons, Johnson has averaged 16 points in four games against the rivals to the South, including a career high 26 his sophomore season.

Obviously the ability is there and it's hard to argue that Marcus shies away from top competition.

Time will tell whether Johnson will finally get off his big game slide and carry the team to a victory against a big time program, and if I was placing a bet, I would count on MJ having a big March should the Flyers make it to postseason play.

Quite frankly, he's just too good to not have a big game.