SU Player Leaves Early, Fanbase Mostly Cool With It
Monday afternoon, Wes Johnson affirmed what many SU fans have felt going back to December, opting to skip his last year of NCAA eligibility and declare himself eligible for June’s NBA draft. And, for a change, the SU fanbase is generally ok with it. Ever since Carmelo Anthony led SU to the 2003 title, the team has been scattered with a handful of players who jumped into the draft waters despite rationale suggesting they shouldn’t have, whether the perceived underlying issues were play on the court, maturity off of it, or a combination of the two.
With Johnson, there’s no rational reason for him to stay at SU any longer, no aspect of his game that can’t be fine-tuned at the next level, not with guaranteed millions waiting for him in the lottery. We know Wes had a terrific year, but let’s do the list one last time:
Led team with 16.5 points per game and 8.5 rebounds per game
Big East POY
First Team AP All-American
Wooden Finalist
Add that he played through pain for a good-sized stretch of conference play and had a monster game against Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament, and you have a superlatively talented player who is more than ready for the next level. To those of you pointing to his disappearance at the end of the Butler game as an indication that he needs to stick around, remember that before any of us knew what kind of quantity Wes Johnson was, SU was picked to finish in the middle of the conference and started the season unranked. Wes was a major reason why all those prognosticators look foolish now.
Even the best players have bad games or go MIA every once in a while. It happens. That element of unpredictability is part of why we latch ourselves to the TV for six months in the first place (that and because it’s so damn cold outside). And it’s also why we should be happy to have been treated to such a special year from a fantastic player. You never know when someone like Wes Johnson will fall into your lap without any prior fanfare, so all you can really do is appreciate everything he gave and wish him the best going forward.
Wes, thanks for making us proud to call you an Orangeman.
