Playing the ‘What If’ Game With Boiler Basketball
The 2007 Indiana All-Star boys basketball team was one of the finest ever assembled by The Indianapolis Star.
Five of the 14 players would go on to play in the NBA. Three of those five – E’Twaun Moore, JaJuan Johnson and Robbie Hummel – would form the nucleus of a Big Ten championship team at Purdue.
One of the biggest what ifs in Purdue athletics history surrounds the two ACL injuries to Hummel’s knee. The first may have prevented the Boilermakers from reaching No. 1 in The Associated Press poll in 2010 and ending a Final Four drought that had reached 30 years.
But what if coach Matt Painter had a more than adequate replacement for Hummel? The opportunity was there in the summer of 2006.
Within a 21-day span in June and July, Painter received verbal commitments from Johnson, Moore and Hummel. All three were Top 100 players in Rivals.com rankings. They headed a class that would include junior college transfers Nemanja Calasan and Chris Reid.
Painter had an available scholarship for one more player.
The final spot came down to Matt Howard, a 6-8 forward from Connersville, and Hummel’s Valparaiso teammate, 6-8 Scott Martin. Moore and Hummel were trying to get Martin to commit according to a story by Steve Hanlon of the Times of Northwest Indiana.
Jeff Washburn, the Lafayette Journal and Courier’s Purdue basketball beat writer, wrote that Howard “reminds me of a young Brian Cardinal but with lots more hair.”
Howard liked Painter, noting his 25-win season at Southern Illinois before coming home to Purdue.
“Look what he did at Southern Illinois,” Howard told Washburn. “Imagine what he could do with Big Ten-like talent.”
Martin committed to Purdue over Michigan on July 21, 2006, wrapping up a class that was ranked fifth nationally by Rivals and first in the Big Ten. After his freshman season, though, Martin transferred to Notre Dame. That left a gaping hole at a forward spot opposite Hummel, forcing Purdue to go with a three-guard lineup of Moore, Chris Kramer and Lewis Jackson during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.
Martin started all 84 games he played at Notre Dame, averaging 9.0 points a game.
Shut out by Martin’s commitment, Howard chose Butler. Playing for Brad Stevens, Howard helped the Bulldogs reach back-to-back Final Fours. Howard was the hero in two 2011 NCAA games, scoring the winning basket against Old Dominion as time expired and sinking a free throw with eight-tenths of a second remaining to topple No. 1 seed Pittsburgh in the Sweet 16.
“I was seriously looking at Purdue, but I just wasn’t ready to say yes when they said, ‘Hey, we have one scholarship for you or Scott. The first one gets it,” Howard told Washburn in 2011 before a workout with the Indiana Pacers.
As a senior, Howard averaged 16.4 points and 7.7 rebounds for Butler. At the same time, Hummel was out for the 2010-11 season with his second ACL tear.
“Maybe I don’t work in Purdue’s system,” Howard said. “Maybe I wouldn’t have panned out up there. Who knows? You can say ‘what if’ both ways. For sure, it makes you feel good when people say those things.”
Howard wasn’t the only Indiana All-Star blocked from coming to Purdue by an earlier commitment.
Four months ago, former NBA guard Jeff Teague said on the Podcenral podcast that he had committed to Purdue. There was just one problem, a big one.
“I didn’t have a scholarship,” Teague said. “The whole time they were recruiting me, they didn’t offer me a scholarship. I thought they did. When I committed, they said … we didn’t offer you. Basically they were (bleep)ing with me. I was hurt a little bit.
“So I thought I’d go to IU. I go on my visit. I walk in the office. (They’ve) got a board with every point guard they’re recruiting. I’m ninth on the list.”
In hindsight, Moore’s commitment likely took Teague off Purdue’s recruiting list. But what if Painter hadn’t essentially wasted a scholarship on the 6-9 Reid – who scored just three points during his two seasons in West Lafayette – and had filled out his class with Teague?
Imagine a starting lineup in 2008-09 of Teague and Moore in the backcourt, Hummel and Howard at forward and Johnson at center?
Teague, listed as the ninth-best point guard in the nation and 57th overall by Rivals.com, ended up at Wake Forest. As a sophomore, he became the school’s first All-American since Chris Paul in 2005. Teague entered the NBA Draft after the 2008-09 season and was taken 19th overall by Atlanta.
Fortunately for Painter and Purdue, Teague didn’t hold a grudge. Now the head coach at his alma mater Pike High School, Teague will be sending five-star center Isaiah Hill to Purdue in the fall of 2027. The 7-foot Hill is the highest-ranked player the Boilermakers have landed since the inception of Internet ranking services. He’s ranked 13th by On3/Rivals and 16th on 247sports.com’s 2027 rankings. Rivals lists Hill as the nation’s top center.
Hill supplants the late Caleb Swanigan, Indiana’s 2015 Mr. Basketball, for that honor.
Purdue never had a shot with 2007 Indiana Mr. Basketball Eric Gordon of North Central. Gordon was the subject of a bitter recruiting battle between Illinois and Indiana. Gordon committed to the Fighting Illini and coach Bruce Weber on Nov. 30, 2005.
Months later, Mike Davis resigned at Indiana and Kelvin Sampson replaced him. Sampson, who could turn a square into a circle with his recruiting tactics, hired the college coach of Eric Gordon Sr. – Jeff Meyer – as an assistant. That move helped sway Gordon to change his commitment to the Hoosiers on Oct. 13, 2006.
Gordon led the Big Ten in scoring, but Indiana lost to Arkansas in the first round of the 2008 NCAA tournament. Gordon declared for the NBA Draft after his freshman season and was taken seventh overall by the Los Angeles Clippers.
Next time: Glenn Robinson’s recruitment and the big one Purdue didn’t get.
Kenny Thompson is the former sports editor for the Lafayette Journal & Courier and an award-winning journalist. He has covered Purdue athletics for many years.