Johnson discusses Harrell asking for release
James Johnson told me that signee Montrezl Harrell’s father asked for Harrell’s release today from his letter of intent. Harrell, a power forward from Hargrave Military Academy, signed with Tech last fall. He will not attend Tech as planned, said Johnson.
“The longer it took [for him to decide whether he'd stick with VT after the coaching change], you think maybe it was going to happen,” Johnson said. “He just wanted to look at some other schools.”
His decision will leave Tech with just eight scholarship players, although Johnson hopes to add a recruit this spring.
“He had a great year [at Hargrave], but you’ve got Barksdale, you’ve got Eddie. … He would’ve had to compete for some playing time.” Johnson said. “We’ve got good guys. We’ve got a good group of guys. I would’ve liked to have had him with us, but I still think this is a good group of guys.
“Not really worried [about having just 8]. We might try to bring a kid or two in. …. You’ve still got your second-team all-conference point guard back. You’ve still got Robert Brown, who scored 16 points and [had] six rebounds in his last game as a Hokie. You’ve still got Jarell Eddie. You’ve still got Cadarian Raines, who could be an all-conference player. You’ve still got C.J. Barksdale. You’ve still got Marquis Rankin and Marshall Wood and 6-10 Joey Van Zegeren. I’m not concerned. We’ve got a good group.
“You’ve got Eddie at the 3. You’ve got Barksdale and Wood at the 4. You’ve got Brown you can bump to the 3. You can play Rankin and Green together. Marshall Wood can play the 3. Eddie will probably play more 3, Wood can play 3 and 4.
“We’re losing six points a game in Dorian Finney-Smith. Montrezl Harrell never scored a basket, never got a rebound for Virginia Tech.”
More from Johnson dicussing his new staff coming to the blog later …
May 10, 2012 - 4:10 PM
That’s great as long you don’t have any injuries – like that would ever happen to Tech!
Jim Weaver has done a great job of botching this season. This will be on his legacy!
Mark,
Will we ever really know what happened with Greenberg and Weaver? I don’t buy the missing “family atomosphere” stuff Weaver was trying to sell us when he fired Seth. He publicly stated during the season that Greenberg would be back next year. Then Weaver comes out after dismissing him and says Greenberg wouldn’t have been back the following year no matter what happen with the ’12-13 season. Makes no sense.
Weaver had to respect the possibility that he couldn’t get a decent coach due to the lateness of his decision and that he could lose players and recruits. Now that has happened. He has lost DFS and Harrell, which I don’t think he counted on after announcing Johnson as the new head coach. Johnson was the “safe” play because the chances of losing players he recruited were thought to be slim. We never heard who his list of coaching candidates were, if he had any. His decision is becoming more and more reckless as these events unfold.
Jim Weaver needs to be held accountable for the mess he has made of our program. The media can help by finding out the truth behind his bizarre decisions.