It's a common theme that any time anyone is getting crushed by an argument they will try to deflect usually off topic to things said out of context years ago. One common one they attribute to me is B. Johnson didn't deserve a scholarship. What was actually said was I'd rather have one of the transfers that was still out there at the time, and that BJ likely wouldn't help Dooley save his job. In fact he didn't, Dooley was fired, and BJ was played off the court in AAC play by the end of that year. 10 minutes a game in February.
Do
you know who didn't think BJ deserved a scholarship? Joe Dooley and
apparently every other coach since he was still unsigned in mid-August.
He was only taken as a late replacement fallback for a recruit that
didn't get into the school originally signed over him. Pure dumb luck. That's the facts. All that
was known to me or stated at the time was that he was the 9th man on his
JUCO team, playing the 9th most minutes and averaging 5ppg behind multiple guys going to D2, and I posted those facts and said this isn't what
Dooley needs to save his job. It wasn't.
On its face questioning him as a prospect wasn't even some obscene statement. It was the most logical outcome after the long list of JUCO bigs ECU has taken with similar 5ppg profiles.(Debaut, Luster, Clarance Williams, Craig etc). Forget the fact he was Plan B roster filler replacement in August and not even as high a priority as those guys he had already signed. He's an anomaly.
That was the context always everyone conveniently forgets to mention too. It was ALWAYS in the context of wanting an experienced proven transfer in the portal, and there were still multiple quality transfers out there in August that could have still helped ECU that season and maybe Dooley saves his job. That was the conversation. All these freshmen predictably and didn't help ECU win anything. Most barely got on the court or stunk when they did. Even Johnson who was the best that year was played off the court in AAC play. Small and Felton were horrible that year. Felton sucked, Small had one of the lowest PER's in ECU history, and the rest never left the bench and can't get on the court for low majors now. BJ was benched by February.
Dooley needed to save his job that year. Taking BJ as a long-term project for the next coach to develop was never the conversation. Never once did I say any of these players couldn't eventually develop 2 or 3 years later and help another coach after he was fired, only that they would very likely not help as freshmen which they didn't.
By the 3rd game, I said I thought Johnson was the best of the freshman. I wanted to keep BJ after that season. In fact, in the summer of 2022 summer while everyone else in the nation, (ECU fans, preseason rags, etc ) were picking Tabbs as the projected star of the team, I had Johnson as my #1 player on the team on this very site.
