Wesley Johnson stole away from the media day crowd, a group who’d already pegged him as the afternoon’s main attraction.

Dressed inconspicuously in his gray hooded sweatshirt, the highly-touted transfer snuck behind the masses and into the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center weight room to bang out some bicep curls before his inevitable date with the bevy of cameras and reporters waiting for him.

This was his big debut – and he wanted everything to be perfect.

‘I figured, I would do some curls and stuff just to look good for those pictures,’ Johnson said. ‘I’m having fun with it.’

Perhaps it was because the moment was so long overdue. Already in his young career, he’d been overlooked, dismissed, scammed and lied to. He got recruited by just one major university out of high school, survived two horrific stints in preparatory school and bounced back from four sour semesters at Iowa State.

Now, he’s at a place where he finally feels comfortable. A place where he feels he’s finally getting his due.

After a trying journey that included stops at two prep schools and a Big 12 university, Johnson hopes to finally settle down with Syracuse this season. The 6-foot-7 forward will make his Orange debut after transferring to SU from Iowa State in May 2008, in an attempt to put his complicated past behind him.

‘It’s been a long road,’ said Craig Carroll, Johnson’s brother. ‘But it was all for his making.’

During his sophomore year of high school, Johnson was a 5-foot-9 point guard for his Corsicana (Texas) High School basketball team. He’d been playing basketball for about four years, after his brother had talked him off the gridiron in the seventh grade.

‘I got on the phone and I said to him, ‘Wesley, with your body frame, you’re going to get taller over the years. And you’re built and you’re made for basketball,’ Carroll said.

Carroll’s premonition about Johnson’s size came eerily true just a few years later. It was the second week of June, and Johnson had just finished his second year of high school, when Carroll got a call from his mother.

‘You’re not going to believe this, your brother is 6-foot-2! It’s like he went to bed, came out the room and was suddenly 6-2!’

Carroll, who lives in Detroit, made the trip down to Texas a month later to see it for himself. He estimates Johnson eventually entered his junior year at 6-foot-5.

‘When he came to me, he was like a 5-10 little bitty skinny rascal, and when he came back that summer, he was 6-6,’ Corsicana High School head coach Andy Dotson said. ‘The rest of the team kind of played a trick on me and asked me to open up the gymnasium and in walks this 6-6 guy, and I’m like ‘Wait a minute, we might be able to do something now.”

Even though Johnson had picked up the game just a few years earlier, basketball suddenly became a serious career plan. He’d gotten nearly a foot taller, but didn’t have the Bambi-on-ice awkwardness that often comes with a sudden growth spurt.

Dotson insisted on keeping him on the perimeter and marketing him as the all-around player. His long-range game was undeniable, and now he could supplement it with a finessed inside presence that was becoming the gold standard for many collegiate head coaches.

‘Wesley shoots it well, he obviously gets up and down the court, he jumps, and he’s a good rebounder,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘He’s a 6-foot-8 guy that can run the court, shoot the basketball and rebound – all good qualities.’

But nobody bit. Dotson said he had schools like Florida State, Oklahoma and Nebraska on the hook, but nothing would seem to reel them in.

Johnson tried to showcase himself through the highly contested Dallas AAU circuit, but he was overshadowed by local prospects like future NBA All-Star Chris Bosh and first-round NBA Draft pick and former Kansas star Darrell Arthur.

So, instead of waiting for the bigger programs, Johnson made a snap decision and signed with the only school that came knocking – Louisiana-Monroe.

‘It was a situation where he kind of jumped the gun,’ Dotson said.

After realizing he’d made a mistake, Johnson signed with Dotson’s father – the coach of a local junior college – to get out of the deal and then enrolled immediately in preparatory program at The Patterson (N.C.) School

Trouble and disappointment followed, though, as signs pointed to something suspicious going on within his new school. Carroll said he and Johnson both had inclinations that the school wasn’t giving Johnson all of his recruiting letters – a complete disservice to a player waiting for that one big chance.

The next foyer into prep school faired no better for Johnson – this time at Eldon (Mich.) Academy – which closed down just a month after his arrival, leaving him in basketball limbo.

‘It was tough,’ Carroll said. ‘However, the main thing it did was build character. It showed how hard work can pay off. He had no choice but to move from one prep school to the next.’

Dotson describes what happened next as something right out of ‘The Beverly Hillbillies.’ With Johnson’s family maintaining a good relationship with a new assistant coach at Iowa State, the Cyclones reached out and contacted Johnson. He was finally in the big show.

‘Next thing you know – Jed’s a millionaire,’ Dotson said. ‘He was just sitting there ready to go.’

Now a sturdy 6-foot-7, Johnson took the Big 12 by storm his freshman year. He started all but one of his team’s games and averaged 12.3 points and 7.9 rebounds per game – good enough to earn him a spot on the conference All-Rookie Team. He scored a season-high 22 points against a Nebraska team that had passed him off as an afterthought just a few years earlier.

‘Doc Sadler down at Nebraska, he’s a good friend of mine, it was really funny,’ Dotson said. ‘After Wes played his first year at Iowa State, he told me he was going to kill me. And I told him, I told y’all about this kid when he was a junior in high school.’

His next year with the Cyclones saw him playing less due to an ankle injury that sidelined him for five games. He still managed 12.4 points and four boards a game, but a tumultuous relationship with ISU head coach Greg McDermott began to fester, Carroll said.

Reports say Johnson packed up his belongings and flew back to Corsicana. McDermott, who declined to comment for this article, called the news ‘shocking’ in a press release issued by the school. He said he flew down to talk to him, but that his mind was already made up – he was headed to Syracuse.

After sitting out a year per NCAA transfer regulations, Johnson emerged at SU media day this October a different person. He was relaxed and comfortable, but the chip on his shoulder still existed. Those around him said he wouldn’t be the same person he is today without the tough road he forged for himself, but that wasn’t enough – and he was determined to show everyone what they missed out on.

During the team’s first exhibition on Oct. 25, Johnson sprung free off a turnover and received a pass from point guard Scoop Jardine with no one in front of him.

As the student section rose in anticipation, Johnson soared above the rim and threw down a raucous jam. Then he just stood, hands on his hips, facing the cheering crowd. This was his big debut, and he wanted everything to be perfect.

‘I was looking into the student section,’ Johnson said. ‘To let them know, yeah, this is going to be an exciting season.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on November 3, 2009 at 12:00 pm