JaJuan's Ustream Makes Everyone Love Him More

Last night, JaJuan Johnson continued his foray into the world of social media by launching his Ustream account and taking questions from his fans for more than an hour.

For those of you uninitiated, Ustream is a site that allows anyone with a webcam to stream themselves live on the Interwebnet and interact with commenters who ask questions, poke fun, etc. I happened to be on Twitter right about when he started and so I jumped on and, well, like the rest of the viewers... I just like the kid even more.

He's funny, soft-spoken, respectful...but still a kid. And he has a great laugh and appreciates jokes people throw his way. As we've said before on our podcast, sometimes when you meet athletes and guys you've enjoyed watching on the court/field, you invariably wind up being disappointed that they're not cooler/nicer/funnier than you expected. Well, JJ once again proves we've got a nice bunch of guys representing us in black and gold.

I also give JJ a lot of credit for doing this on the very day he declared for the NBA Draft. He could have holed up and not talked to anyone -- instead, the guy puts himself online, live, to answer questions from students, alums and fans. Like I said, good dude.

During his streaming video, he got on the phone with Kelsey Barlow, who he put on speaker and who was happy to say what's up and said he was "just clownin" with the whole choke signal against IU.

Later on, several viewers asked him to call Rob Hummel. JJ laughed and texted Rob and said if he texted back and was awake, he'd give him a call. Before long, Rob called JJ's phone and JJ again put his buddy on speaker.

In an age of carefully protected images and scripted responses when people do get access to athletes, this was really a lot of fun.

Some excerpts from the evening with JJ (quotes are paraphrases of JJ's responses):

"Yeah, I do think the media overlooks us sometimes, but like you said, we just use that as motivation." -- When I asked him if he thinks the media overlooks the Boilers sometimes and, if so, do they care or do they use it as motivation.

"I'm going with Bubba Day." -- When asked who he'd take, E'Twaun or Rob.

"Sandi Marcius weighs two of me." -- When asked about Sandi.

"He's already better than me." -- When asked if Sandi Marcius could be as good as him.

"Yeah, Coach Painter can shoot really well. He passes even better, though. He said that was kind of his game, passing." -- When I asked him about Coach Painter's shooting ability.

"Probably the Minnesota game in the Big Ten Tournament... those of you who watched know why." -- When asked about his most regretted game as a Boilermaker.

"[laughs] Oh, I can't really repeat what I said... but there was some profanity in there." -- When asked what he said to earn his tech earlier this year.

"Probably Coack K." -- On who was the most classy coach he's faced.

"Kyle Singler was pretty good." -- When asked who was the best player the Boilers have faced.

"The Houston support was amazing. We had a really great turnout [of fans] there." -- When asked about the support the team had in Houston.

"I'm just driving a Chrysler LHS. I need to upgrade." -- When asked what kind of ride he had.

"Oh, man, campus would be crazy." -- When I asked him how campus would be if they won a national title. (Okay, so I wanted him to think about that a little.)

JJ also said the team will be wearing different jerseys next year, more in the style of MSU, Duke and UK, where there's something blended into the back as a collage of some kind, presumably including Mackey Arena. I, for one, hate those unis but JJ seemed to think it was a good change.

Anyway, as I said, this went on for more than an hour, probably close to 90 minutes. JJ was just sitting there in his apartment, wearing his headphones, watching the NBA, drinking Gatorade and answering questions.

Good guy.