THE DAILY IOWAN | FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2010sports

By SCOTT MILLERscott-t-miller@uiowa.edu

Derrell Johnson-Koulianos showed upfor his court appearance on the blus-tery Wednesday morning dressed in agray turtleneck, black blazer, and

freshly pressed slacks. Sunglasses shielded hiseyes from the camera clicks and the recordingdevices as he made his way to the courthouse. Hishair and beard were newly trimmed — a decided-ly different look from his mug shot taken at theJohnson County Jail some 19 hours earlier.There, he wore a hooded sweatshirt — his hairnot groomed, his facial hair a mess.

It wasn’t supposed to end this way for John-son-Koulianos, the most prolific wide receiver inIowa history. It wasn’t supposed to end withpolice raiding his house. It wasn’t supposed toend with the discovery of pharmaceutical drugs.It wasn’t supposed to end with Johnson-Kou-lianos reportedly testing positive for cocaine andmarijuana. It wasn’t supposed to end with the23-year-old being formally charged with sevendrug-related charges and national headlinesabout an Iowa player running a “drug house.”

No, it wasn’t supposed to end this way at all.

GO AND CATCH A FALLING STARIt’s an age-old story: The beautiful becomes the damned. But for

Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, it wasn’t supposed to be this way.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BRENNA NORMAN/THE DAILY IOWANFormer Iowa wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos is surrounded by fans awaiting autographs after an open practice at Kinnick Stadium on Aug. 14. The star was arrested on seven drug-related charges Tuesday.

SEE DJK, 3B

By MATT COZZImatthew-cozzi@uiowa.edu

Kachine Alexander’s hard drive tothe basket nearly five minutes into thesecond half — which resulted in a two-point field goal — changed everything.

Alexander extended the Hawkeyes’lead to 10 points, and No. 19 Iowanever looked back, as it routed 16th-ranked Iowa State, 62-40, in Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday night.

Following Alexander’s early sec-ond-half field goal, Iowa (9-1)

By J.T. BUGOSjoseph-bugos@uiowa.edu

CEDAR FALLS — Thedifference in intensitybetween Iowa and NorthernIowa was clear before thefirst wrestler stepped ontothe map in the West Gym.

One Panther grapplerflashed smiles to thecrowd, and others wore

solemn looks.Hawkeye wrestlers wore

one look in common: a scowl.The gap in intensity

showed on the mat as well,as Iowa demolished its in-state counterpart, 39-0.

The Hawkeyes’ work inthe top position was key.

Grapplerspound UNI

SEE WRESTLING, 2B

Hawkeyes thrash Iowa State

RYAN MILLER/THE DAILY IOWAN Iowa senior guard Kachine Alexander celebrates following a Hawkeye basket duringIowa’s game against Iowa State in Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday. Iowa beat theCyclones, 62-40.SEE BASKETBALL, 2B

The Hawkeye wrestlers dominatedNorthern Iowa, 39-0, behind 30takedowns and 17:34 of riding time.

Morgan Johnson’s double-double leadsthe 19th-rankedHawkeyes in victoryover their in-state rival.

Sportsddaaiillyyiioowwaann..ccoomm for more sportsThe Daily Iowan - Iowa City, Iowa - Friday, December 10, 2010 - 3B

TThhee bbeesstt aanndd wwoorrsstt ooffDDJJKK

Johnson-Koulianos’ bestand worst trait has alwaysbeen his affable personali-ty. In front of the media —when he was still allowedto talk to the media — healways spoke as if he wasgiving a monologue. Hewanted to entertain, toamuse. Most of all, hewanted to be liked. Heck,DJK even started his ownFacebook fan page — onethat had about 5,000 fol-lowers before he took itdown on Dec. 7.

He wanted to be recog-nized. He wanted to befamous. Could this be con-nected to his past, to thefeeling of abandonment hemight have felt when hisbiological mother left himat such a young age?

Once when working onThe Daily Iowan’s weeklyfootball insert, Pregame, Itexted Johnson-Koulianosto clarify a point he made atthe team’s media day inAugust — the last time hespoke publicly. He answeredmy question, also adding,“Maybe get me on the frontpage of Pregame Friday?”

Forget about the mari-juana. Try to get past thecocaine. It’s some of thepharmaceutical substancespolice reportedly found inDJK’s room that raise big-ger questions:

• Zolpidem Tartrate, amedicine administeredmainly to help the elderlyget a good night’s rest. “It’sreally unusual for youngpeople to have sleepingmedicines,” said KatherineLinder, a pharmacist atMedicap Pharmacy in ruralIowa.

• Diazepam, one of theoriginal anxiety medications.

• HydromorphoneHydrochloride (Diluadid), avery strong controlled sub-stance used for extremepain. Typically seen in thetreatment of cancerpatients and people whohave had severe accidents,it’s stronger than morphine.“That’s the big one. That’sthe one that made me go,‘Wow. What do they havethat for?’ ” Linder said. “…There’s no way that a foot-ball player or anybodywould be using that acutely.In my practice, I’ve seenscripts for [HydromorphoneHydrochloride] a few times.The likelihood of [Johnson-Koulianos] having a legiti-mate prescription for some-thing like that is pretty low.”

What were his inten-tions? Why did he havethem? We don’t know. But,allegedly, he had them.

“They’re very danger-ous,” Linder said about thedrugs found in Johnson-Koulianos’ bedroom.“When you take hydromor-phone by itself, withoutany kind of tolerance, youcan have respiratorydepression and die.”

Up until this point, John-son-Koulianos was definedby his vivacious public per-sona — not by the prescrip-tion drugs found in his room.The wide receiver’s personal-ity resembles NFL braggado-cios Chad Ochocinco and Ter-rell Owens. Earlier this sea-son, quarterback RickyStanzi said he was prettysure those were Johnson-Koulianos’ role models. (Nei-ther Ochocinco nor Owenshave ever faced the legaltrouble now confrontingJohnson-Koulianos.)

It’s this personality thathas, at times, alienated him

from a Hawkeye coachingstaff hell-bent on control-ling the program’s imageand never saying too much.As recently as Nov. 27against Minnesota, John-son-Koulianos didn’t startbecause fellow wide receiv-er Colin Sandeman had a“better week of practice,”Ferentz said. When I askedDJK his explanation for thenon-start, he said he wasthe last one on the field forthe Friday walk-through.

But it’s also a personalitythat endeared him to a fanbase yearning for a star. AtKids Day and after homegames, he could always befound with a black Sharpiein hand, signing countlessautographs until the hordewas pleased. In the lobby ofthe team’s hotel for theMichigan game earlier thisyear, I ran into Johnson-Koulianos talking with sev-

eral kids in Hawkeye gear.The kids looked up at him,admired him, adored him.

This was the world inwhich Johnson-Koulianoslived. He craved attention,and frankly, much of it waswell-deserved. For fouryears, he was Iowa’s mostproductive wide receiver.For four years, he lit upopposing secondaries. Forfour years, he compiled arecord better than anyother receiver to play inIowa City. Better than TimDwight. Better than KevinKasper. Better than DananHughes and Quinn Early.DJK is Iowa’s all-timeleader in receptions andreceiving yardage, and hehas scored 17 touchdowns,including 10 this season.

It only took one day forall of that potential tounravel. Now, as the worstkind of attention zeroes in

on him, there are no morerecords to break, no moreautographs to sign, no morekids to ogle at him.

At Iowa media day onAug. 6, Johnson-Koulianossaid, “A lot of guys don’tunderstand that fewer thanhalf of 1 percent of the people in the world get tobe a part of anything likethis. That’s an opportunitypeople dream of. I dreamt ofit as a little boy, I can’tbelieve I’m living it.”

The dream is over.Johnson-Koulianos, a

senior, has played his lastgame as a Hawkeye —head coach Kirk Ferentzsaid as much in his tersestatement issued on thenight of the arrest: “I amhighly disappointed tolearn of the charges. Derrellhas been suspended fromall team activities.”And in adiscussion Thursday with

Missouri reporters — Iowaplays Mizzou Dec. 28 in theInsight Bowl — Ferentzsaid, “He’ll not play againhere.”

The NFL, which wasonce a mere certainty, maycome calling; it may not.Johnson-Koulianos has leftthat in someone else’shands now.

“If you want to try to fig-ure out the worst thing todo to your draft stock, hemight have found it,” saidWes Bunting, the directorof college scouting for theNational Football Post.

TThhee eelluussiivvee DDJJKK ssttoorryyI have been chasing

Johnson-Koulianos’ storyfor a while, but never wouldhave guessed it would endup like this.

On March 9, I sent an e-mail to Iowa Sports Infor-mation Director PhilHaddy requesting to do along profile on Johnson-Koulianos. The wide receiv-er’s background — he wasabandoned by his teenmother, adopted by theKoulianos family, andbecame a wildly successfulDivision-I athlete — wasnewsworthy enough, butthat Johnson-Koulianoswas on the verge of becom-ing Iowa’s all-time leadingreceiver made this a storythat had to be told.

Not surprisingly, John-son-Koulianos was onboard. “Let’s do it big anddo it right,” I rememberhim telling me one night atFormosa, 221 E. College St.That was the DJK way —always wanting to do it big.

But per Ferentz’s policy,all exclusive interviews areprovided at the head coach’sdiscretion. On March 11,Ferentz sent Haddy the fol-lowing e-mail, which wasthen forwarded to me,“Great idea, but I’ll declineright now on DJK. Is thereanother player he wouldlike to do a positive featureon? [Adrian] Clayborn?”

And that was that — orso I thought.

Three months later, MikeHlas — a longtime colum-nist at the Gazette and week-ly contributor to the univer-sity-controlled postgameradio broadcast — wasgranted an extensive

interview with Johnson-Koulianos for a feature inthe newspaper’s Iowa football preseason magazine.The story ran at the beginning of August. Hawk-eye officials never made itclear what had changed overthat three-month span.

I stayed in contact withJohnson-Koulianosthroughout this season — atext here, a text there. Iplanned on doing my Hon-ors project for the journal-ism school on him. Wescheduled to meet threeweeks ago at his house tostart the process. Commu-nication faltered, and thatmeeting never happened.

TThhee ssaadd eennddiinnggJohnson-Koulianos’ story

was supposed to end thisway — with Lauren andAnthony Koulianosembracing their son atmidfield of Kinnick Stadi-um on Senior Day. It wasNov. 20, and tears flowedfrom all three. This was theending Johnson-Koulianoswanted. This was how hewanted people to remem-ber him — as a first-teamAll-Big Ten receiver, as theproduct of a hard upbring-ing and a blessed adoption,as a future NFL player.

On March 14, a few daysafter Ferentz had rebuffedmy request to chronicleJohnson-Koulianos’ story,Anthony Koulianos textedme from Johnson-Koulianos’ phone. He saidhe was honored that Iwould think his family’sstory was worthy of cover-age. But he said it wasparamount that his sonnot do anything againstFerentz’s wishes.

His chain of text mes-sages finished with, “Willdefinitely be talking to youin the future with a draft-day finish. God willing.”

That seems so long ago.Seven drug charges ago.Where will Johnson-Kou-lianos go from here? Will hemake better choices? Willhe learn a valuable lesson?Is this sad ending really anending at all?

We wonder.But then again, as we’ve

learned when it comes toDJK, we never really know.

DJK CONTINUED FROM 1B

FILE PHOTO/THE DAILY IOWANIowa wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos is tackled by Minnesota cornerback Michael Carter during Iowa’s game against Minnesota on Nov. 21, 2009, in Kinnick Stadium.

ROB JOHNSON/THE DAILY IOWANFormer Iowa football player Derrell Johnson-Koulianos is driven away from the Johnson CountyCourthouse by his attorney, John Beasley, on Wednesday. Johnson-Koulianos was arrested Tuesday onfour counts of possession of a controlled substance, one count of keeping a drug house, and two countsof unlawful possession of a prescription drug. He has waived his right to a speedy trial.

“A lot of guys don’t understand that fewerthan half of 1 percent of the people in theworld get to be a part of anything like this.That’s an opportunity people dream of.I dreamt of it as a little boy, I can’t believeI’m living it.” — Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, at the team’s Aug. 6 media day

PATH OF A FALLEN STAR

DAVID SCRIVNER/THE DAILY IOWANIowa wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown in thefourth quarter against Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., on Sept. 18.

EMMA BARDEN/THE DAILY IOWAN