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TOPICS: dorian finney-smith montrezl harrell james johnson virginia tech basketball virginia tech
After the seemingly constant barrage of bad news regarding the Virginia Tech basketball program, Tuesday’s announcement that new head coach James Johnson had finished hiring his staff surely was a welcome relief from all the negativity.
While the hiring of Andy Moore as director of basketball operations might not be especially significant, it has to at least be a good sign that this battered program is getting back on its feet.
However, this news does bring a pretty disconcerting fact squarely into focus- since Johnson’s hiring on May 1, the rookie head coach has been disturbingly quiet.
When athletic director Jim Weaver announced that the team would stay relatively “in-house” by hiring the former assistant, many assumed that his selection was designed to inspire confidence among team members and stop the mass exodus that normally accompanies a firing in college basketball.
Instead, the Hokies lost promising freshman Dorian Finney-Smith and touted recruit Montrezl Harrell in the weeks following Seth Greenberg’s firing.
While Finney-Smith had intimated earlier that he was considering leaving, Harrell’s decision seemed purely based on the change in leadership, destroying Tech’s incoming recruiting class.
Johnson was at least able to convince fellow recruit Marshall Wood to honor his commitment to the team after contemplating a change in allegiance, but it seemed as if failing to retain Harrell was a major strike against the new coach.
He had announced the hiring of Mark Byington, who had also worked at Harrell’s Hargrave Military Academy, as an assistant coach just a day before Harrell’s announcement that he was leaving, making the recruit’s decision a clear rebuttal of Johnson’s efforts.
Given Greenberg’s connection to both players, it’s difficult to blame Johnson entirely for their departure, but it was an unsettling early sign for his tenure. He was able to at least convince point guard Erick Green to stay after he had publicly questioned his loyalty to Tech, yet this seemed to be an absence of a negative rather than a real positive.
Instead, it’s his results in attempting to attract new players to the program that have been actively disturbing.
While Johnson can hardly be blamed for the odd timing surrounding Greenberg’s firing and his installment as coach, there hasn’t been a lot of good news involving recruiting since Seth’s departure.
The biggest news has been the arrival of transfer student Adam Smith, the CAA’s leading scorer from UNC-Wilmington. However, Smith won’t be eligible until next season, leaving Wood as the team’s lone signee.
Greenberg was actively pursuing several players when he was relieved of his duties, but Johnson’s prospects of reeling any of them in seem to be pretty grim.
A version of this article appeared in the Jun 14 issue of the Collegiate Times.
Leave a comment 27 Comments Write a letter to the editor
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How about instead of bashing a new coach that's only been on the job for a little over a month, you take the time to write a decent article about the two Hokie baseball players that were selected in the First-Year Player Draft. These guys get a chance to fulfill their dreams.
This article is what "disappoints" and "disturbs" me.
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They were drafted in the 28th and 33rd rounds of the MLB draft. This story talks about a coach who has lost two top-150 recruits and projected NBA players. This story is more relevant. I'm happy for the two baseball players, but this story is more important.
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Two potential NBA players? DFS is NOT an NBA player and was out the door whether Seth stayed or not. Harrell as potential to be an NBA player but simply used to firing to get out of his LOI after he blew up on the AAU circuit
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I don't believe DFS to be an NBA caliber player. I think he's barely NCAA caliber. Regardless, they are both projected NBA players. However, the fact remains that this story has more relevance than two late-round MLB draft picks.
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Wow...some things fly completely over some people's heads. My point being here Adam is that this coach has been on the job for a month. The people below have it right. There are always going to be a disruption in recruiting when there are coaching changes. This story would be much more relevant in say....October.
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Actually it seems my point has completely passed you. I agree with what people are saying about the article and the coach. It's not necessarily all his fault and recruiting does dip with coaching changes. My point is that this is more relevant right now than 28th and 33rd round MLB draft picks. The status of DFS and Harrell just recently changed, making it relevant now. Comparing the two - 28th/33rd round MLB vs. departure of two top-150 recruits - is a win for the basketball story. The story will also be relevant in October. That doesn't make it irrelevant now.
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I agree with this article. This article does reflect Weaver's complete lack of awareness of the impact of Greenberg. It's true Greenberg was not a X & O guys, but he was on the verge of attracting several marquee players, after years on the trail. What does Weaver do, hire someone who has to learn the ropes on 'how' to recruit big-time players. If this first month is any reflection of Johnson's personality, VT is going to be set back a few years. Why would Weaver care? He doesn't, he's retiring in 2 years. He knows his legacy will be tied to making VT competitive as a campus whole--Baseball, Soccer, Women's sports (excluding B-Ball once again!)And, he knows that when Johnson gets outmatched, the University is liable to spend the kind of $$ on a coach to draw someone with big-time experience.
Weaver was pathetic in his handling of Greenberg. True, Seth may have been running out of time, but the timing has shot the program in the foot. He did the same with the women's program a couple of years ago. Anyone notice where Kansas was this last post-season?
Who does not like Johnson? But---will or can he recruit...so far, it does not appear he will have the personality to draw 4 star recruits.It will be a couple of tough years for men's B-Ball. Thank Weaver for putting Johnson in a tough position.Johnson deserves better.
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You don't know Johnson who has been on the trail to recruit big time targets his whole career. he was one of our better recruiters and is very very well respected as a recruiter.
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Are you nuts? The blame solely rests on Jim Weaver. Greenberg would still be around if we got into the NCAA tourney one of those three years that we deserved it. It wasn't quite time for him to go.
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Weak 'story'. Changing coaches inevitably leads to short term recruiting disruptions since you have to forge new relationships. Already calling his performance 'dissapointing' would be like grading your article based on the first 3 words, and not reading the rest. May have to stay tuned slightly longer to start making judgements.
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I agree, Chris. Coach Johnson is in an impossible situation this year. He's better off banking those scholarships until next year and building the team from there. If we win 2 ACC games in '12-'13 it will be luck and chance.
Mr. Koma did not mention Weaver once in his article. Weaver did not even have the decency to face Coach Greenberg until rumors were spreading on the internet. Forty other schools hired coaches this year before Weaver decided to start looking. He didn't pay Greenberg's asst. coaches enough money, but blamed the coach. Coach Greenberg was the second winningest coach in VT history, but was treated worse than a moldy porch sofa in Morgantown.
Best of luck, Coach Johnson: between Weaver's "leadership" and Koma's "journalism" your will need it.
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Who is this idiot and what has she done with my CT??? Its like the adults accidentally left a computer on. The writers comments make no sense and she places blame for things that occurred before JJ was even hired back. We all can be frustrated but the CT editorial staff should take some responsibility and not print garbage articles like this.
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O.K, which is it?
Is Koma a he or a she? Anonymous refers to the writer as a she.
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Gender doesn't matter. It's another awful piece by Koma. This "journalist" should switch majors. Or take a language and logic class in the philosophy department. Or just pay attention before offering opinions. Geez, what a dump of dung to hand Coach Johnson after Weaver screwed the pooch.
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Why in the world would you try to connect the hiring of Byington with any attempt to retain Harrell? Harrell was in elementary school when Byington coached at Hargrave.
And to make comments about Johnson filling Greenberg's shoes and generating buzz is a purely ridiculous exercise given Johnson's 7-week tenure and 0-0 record. I assure you that Greenberg's shoes weren't considered large and any buzz generated was alcohol-induced at this point in Seth's tenure at VT.
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Holy cow. SO he already has "doubters"? The writer and more accurately, the editors of the CT should be ashamed of themselves for this sensationalist garbage. Pathetic, is all I can say.
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What type of buzz do you expect from college basketball in May and June? is any other program generating any buzz right now? No. It's June. It's basically a dead period for the sport aside from transfers.
Trying to connect Byington's hiring with trying to keep Harrell is laughably dumb. Please do some research as to timelines next time.
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With all due respect, please think about what you are going to put out to the world before you put something like this out. It is irresponsible and only makes our Coaches job harder, and that doesn't even take into account the fact the article is unfair, overly negative and illogical. The next time ESPN shows Coach on the sideline will be his first time in front of the home audiences. He hasn't had a chance to build up a persona big enough to generate the kind of buzz you apparently think is so critical to success. I hope you are a young college kid, which would explain some things, but please trust and believe there are other ways to be successful than just creating a buzz. The best way I know, is the same way Coach Johnson subscribes to and that is hard work. You expect a guy who inherits a train wreck to work miracles in 30 days? Let me guess, we can expect more negative articles if we don't make the NCAA final 4 this year too... How about reaching out to interview the man and get a grip on the challenges he faces during his transition. He is probably to busy to give interviews to hack reporters, but it is worth a shot and you would have a shot at a decent article.
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This article seeks to assess Johnson for a situation he walked into, not one he created. As such it's like grading a student on their first week of class, or a reporter on one misguided article, like this one.
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Byington was a coach at Hargrave when Harrell was in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. A "clear rebuttal" of his actions? Seriously? What a joke of an author. Go back to crayons, scrub.
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This article needs to placed in the Opinions section, because that is all it as. A lousy writer's opinions based solely on their views of college basketball failing to rely on any fact.
It's impossible to blame JJ for the loss of DFS and Harrell.
JJ is trying to re-brand this basketball program and parading around like the last joke of a 'coach' we had wouldn't do him any good. Give the guy credit for his patience and taking his time in a dead period to assemble a staff that has the opportunity to be set up for success rather than failure.
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