Purdue’s Johnson Named To USA Men’s Select Team

Purdue rising senior forward/center JaJuan Johnson has been named to the USA Men’s Select Team that will train against the 2010 USA Men’s National Team later this month in Las Vegas, USA Basketball announced Thursday.

The 20-player team, led by co-head coaches Lorenzo Romar and Jay Wright, will converge on Las Vegas for a private training session on July 19 before training with Team USA from July 20-23. All practices will be held at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion.

“The national team training camp will be a great opportunity for me to improve my game,” Johnson said. “It’s an honor to be selected to train with such a great group of players. I’m sure that this experience will help me grow both on and off the court.”

The late-July training camp will be Johnson’s second experience with USA Basketball, as the Indianapolis native also participated in the 2009 USA Basketball Trials.

Johnson was a second-team All-Big Ten pick in 2010 after earning first-team honors as a sophomore, and also earned his second-straight nod to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team. He led the Boilermakers in rebounds as a junior with an average of 7.1 per contest, and ranked third on the team with a clip of 15.5 points per game.

Johnson finished the season ranked second in program history with 184 blocked shots after pacing the Big Ten with a mark of 2.0 rejections per game in league play. He also penned his name into 15th place on the program’s single-season list with 250 total rebounds, leading the Boilers in that category on 21 occasions.

One of just 20 Boilermakers with 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in his career, Johnson will enter his final campaign ranked 28th on the career scoring list with 1,221 points and 24th with 563 boards. He also owns 14 double-doubles for his career after tallying nine such efforts as a junior.

“The USA Basketball Junior National Team Committee is thrilled to be able to give some of the top older college players this opportunity to be involved with USA Basketball this summer,” chair of the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee Jim Boeheim said. “These 20 players now have an opportunity to be involved with USA Basketball in a summer when they normally wouldn’t, and they’ll get a chance to play against some great NBA players. It will help them improve, and it will help our national team be better prepared for this summer’s World Championship.”

Eight collegiate conferences are represented on the USA Men’s Select Team, with the Big Ten listing five players, the ACC checking in with four, the Big 12 placing three, the A-10, Big East and SEC each claiming two and both the Horizon and Mountain West sending one.

The USA Basketball Men’s National Team will use its time with the Select Team as preparation for the 2010 FIBA World Championship, slated for Aug. 28-Sept. 12 in Turkey. The camp will culminate with the 2010 USA Basketball Showcase, a Blue-White intra-squad game among the National Team that will be held at 7 p.m. PT on Saturday at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center. Tickets for the event can be purchased by calling (866) 388-FANS or by logging on to UNLVtickets.com.

2010 USA Men’s Select Team Lavoy Allen (Sr., C, Temple)
William Buford (Jr., G, Ohio State)
LaceDarius Dunn (Sr., F, Baylor)
Jimmer Fredette (Sr., G, BYU)
Scotty Hopson (Jr., G, Tennessee)
Scoop Jardine (Jr., G, Syracuse)
JaJuan Johnson (Sr., F/C, Purdue)
Jon Leuer (Sr., C, Wisconsin)
Shelvin Mack (Jr., G, Butler)
Marcus Morris (Jr., F, Kansas)
Jacob Pullen (Sr., G, Kansas State)
John Shurna (Jr., F, Northwestern)
Kyle Singler (Sr., F, Duke)
Chris Singleton (Jr., F, Florida State)
Nolan Smith (Jr., G, Duke)
Howard Thompkins (Jr., F, Georgia)
Mike Tisdale (Sr., C, Illinois)
Kemba Walker (Jr., G, Connecticut)
Chris Wright (Sr., F, Dayton)
Tyler Zeller (Jr., F, North Carolina)