At the end of every NCAA basketball season, several players pop up on the NBA radars as possibilities for the upcoming draft in June. Regardless of whether they are seniors or not, the media and all kinds of pundits start prognosticating the players’ chances at the pro level. For the bulk of the NCAA tournament, the rumors were coming in loud and clear that Purdue center JaJuan Johnson may be one of those chosen ones.

Why? Well, for the statistics side of things, he was a solid choice–all Big Ten first team for the talent-laden Boilermakers and a very good tournament–and plus for being a player that was not even mentioned alongside fellow Robbie Hummel at the beginning of the season, Johnson was certainly a huge, pleasant surprise.

And he had a story too–there was a lot of coverage of his mother’s travels to the NCAA games due to people assisting in getting her there. It was truly a feel good story, and with a family that could use the money, it would seem the most natural step for Johnson would be to throw his hat into the NBA ring.

Not going to happen…at least this year.

Johnson has opted to stay at Purdue for his junior year, and you can bet that the Purdue offense will be certainly churning with him in the mix–a year older, a year wiser, a year more experienced.

Yikes.