WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. � By the time he finished his first varsity basketball season as a freshman at East Chicago Central High in Indiana, E'Twaun Moore already had scholarship offers from Iowa and Purdue.
By Michael Conroy, AP
E'Twaun Moore, left, and JaJuan Johnson hope to make a run at the NCAA tournament title in their final games at Purdue.
By Michael Conroy, AP
E'Twaun Moore, left, and JaJuan Johnson hope to make a run at the NCAA tournament title in their final games at Purdue.
About 150 miles south at Franklin Central High in Indianapolis, JaJuan Johnson finished his freshman season wondering when he would be good enough to make the varsity. Johnson started playing on a whim in seventh grade and barely made the B team. He still couldn't crack the A team in eighth grade.
"The rule was if you couldn't hit a left-handed layup we couldn't keep you on the team," says Mark James, the Franklin Central coach who also oversees middle school programs. "But he was 6-3, and we were not going to cut him."
Johnson has transformed himself into a 6-10 All-America candidate who this week was named Big Ten player of the year and defensive player of the year. One of 10 finalists for the Oscar Robertson Trophy as national player of the year, he averages 20.5 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocked shots. He shoots 81.6% on free throws, one of the best marks in the country among players 6-10 or taller.
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Moore, 6-4, who carries himself with a quiet confidence gained from playing organized basketball since he was 6 years old, is a repeat first-team all-Big Ten player averaging 18.3 points and 5.2 rebounds while shooting 41% on three-pointers.
The seniors are one of highest-scoring duos in Division I as ninth-ranked Purdue (25-6) heads into its Big Ten tournament opener Friday vs. Michigan State or Iowa in Indianapolis.
Purdue had won seven in a row until it was stunned by Iowa (11-19) last weekend. But the Boilermakers have weathered tougher setbacks, such as losing 6-8 senior Robbie Hummel. In the season-opening practice Hummel tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He suffered the same season-ending injury in February 2010, yet Purdue reached the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row. Hummel, who each time had surgery to repair the knee, will return for a fifth year next season.
His absence was a blow for the Boilermakers. An inside-outside threat, Hummel averaged 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds before he injured the knee last season.
"I think people didn't think we'd be good after Robbie got hurt," Moore says.
Resolute on reaching the Final Four, Johnson and Moore electrified crowds at home in Mackey Arena, where Purdue was 16-0. In an upset of Ohio State there last month, Moore had 38 points and went 7-for-10 on three-pointers.
"I'm extremely proud of those guys," Hummel says. "They've ? raised the level of the team."
They have met the expectations of coach Matt Painter, who said shortly after Hummel went down that the Final Four was still a realistic goal.
"We're not playing five on four," Painter says. "It's still five on five. We didn't have anybody that had all of Rob's qualities, but each has a quality that together helps us form a good team."
Painter prides himself on recruiting "lunch-pail, blue-collar" players. Johnson and Moore (and Hummel when healthy) are proof that such players can become bona fide college stars.
"Blue-collar gets the unfair label of being unathletic or not flashy," Hummel says. "I wouldn't say those guys are extremely flashy, but they've made highlight plays. And it's not really about making highlight plays. It's about producing. Both those guys have."
Moore will leave Purdue with more than 2,000 points.
"I'm still living in the moment, so it hasn't hit me," he says.
He marvels at Johnson's improvement. "He's really had to climb the ladder," Moore says. "That made him more ambitious and made him work harder."
Johnson says as a lanky kid he worked at his sport so he could hold his head high knowing he was respectable when strangers approached him to talk about basketball.
"It's added pressure from the outside," Johnson says. "You can walk to the store and someone will come up to you and say, 'How tall are you? I know you play basketball.' "
They should see him now for the force he has become. He can post up, shoot turnaround jumpers, run the floor as though he's fit for a marathon and even hit three-pointers occasionally. He's 14-for-44 on threes.
He sank his first ever three-pointer against Alcorn State in November.
"I tried to act like I had done it a million times," he says. "I ran back on the court (to play defense), like nothing was a big deal. But I heard everybody else gasping for breath like, 'What is he doing?' "
Moore remembers it vividly. "I said, 'Oh, shoot. He's hitting threes now. We're going to have a great year.' "
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