My Two Cents: Forced to Pick, Would You Choose Swanigan or Johnson?
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — When the Big Ten started rolling out its All-Decade basketball team on Monday, there were two things I noticed quickly.
The first thing, of course, was that two Purdue players — Caleb Swanigan and JaJuan Johnson — were on the team. Both are deserving, of course, for the imprint they put on the league this past decade. They were, without question, two of the best big men to play in the league in the past 10 years. Some have even argued that they should have been ranked higher.
The second thing that jumped out, though, was that there were six players on the team instead of five. In vote of 24 committee members, they said there was a tie, so they went with six instead of five.
A bit of a cop-out, if you ask me. Participation-trophy like, in a harsh sort of way.
No one did ask, of course, but I had this thought. What if you were forced to narrow down the list? From six to five?
Could you do it?
Of course you could as a Purdue fan, because you'd just whack one of the other guys besides Swanigan and Johnson. There are easy targets among Indiana's Yogi Ferrell, Ohio State guard Aaron Craft and D'Angelo Russell and Minnesota's Jordan Morgan.
It would be easy for you to knock off Ferrell, if only for the name on the FRONT of his jersey. And you could care less about the other three, so taking them out wouldn't force you to break a sweat either.
To me, Ferrell belongs for sure — yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking — and I'd knock out Russell myself. Sure, he had a good year in 2015, but it was just one year, and my last Ohio State memory of him was going 3-for-19 from the field in an ugly loss to Arizona in the tournament.
But I digress. So what if I didn't make it that easy for you? What if I made you choose between ONLY Swanigan and Johnson?
That's mean, I know,
But here's why I like the question. I like it so much because I have absolutely no feel about which way a vote would go. There's a great case to be made for both guys to win the honor, and it's very hard to separate the two. There are no losers, to be sure.
Both were big men, but they had different games. Johnson was long and lean, Swanigan was thick and strong and would just as soon go through you as around you.
Johnson stayed four years, and got better every year. Swanigan only stayed two, but I won't ding him with the loyalty hammer at all, because he could have left after one year but chose to come back. His sophomore year was huge, and it easily couldn't have happened.
Both knew how to score in a variety of ways and both, everyone will tell you, were great teammates. Swanigan's sophomore year — 18.5 points and 12.5 rebounds a game — was probably the best individual season, but Johnson's senior year was pretty great, too. He averaged 20.5 points and 8.6 rebounds.
Yep, I know what you're thinking. This is too hard. And you'd be right.
My vote? Very hard, too.
Both were great players that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. But forced to choose, I think I'd go with Johnson. I really liked that his game got better every year, and don't forget that he really had to step up his senior year because Robbie Hummel missed the entire season, and it was up to Johnson and E'Twaun Moore to basically carry the load on that team.
Please cast your vote on the link so I can track the voting, but feel free to leave your comments here.
Related Purdue basketball stories
- SWANIGAN, JOHNSON ALL-DECADE: Purdue greats Caleb Swanigan and JaJuan Johnson are on the Big Ten's All-Decade third team. CLICK HERE
- MICHIGAN SAYS NO TO EASTERN: Purdue transfer Nojel Eastern is back in the transfer portal after being denied admission by Michigan. CLICK HERE
- AD MORGAN BURKE DIES: Here's what people had to say about Morgan Burke after the former Purdue athletic direction passed away. CLICK HERE
