Seton Hall Recruiting, West Virginia Recruiting

CATCHING UP WITH KARRON JOHNSON

By Raymond Balter

NBE Report caught up recently with both Juice All-Stars coach James Shange Black, and the young man he has taken in and become a mentor to, Karron Johnson. Johnson is one the class of ‘09’s most explosive athletes, the 18th ranked power forward in that class by Scout, and someone whose stock could very well rise higher. Memphis was thought to be the leader for Johnson, but that has changed, and now Johnson has some very favorable things to say about the coach of a particular Big East school.

“A lot of schools have come knocking, but I have no favorite,” Karron Johnson told me. “Memphis was my favorite, but with the way that they’ve been recruiting, I’m not needed there. I want to go somewhere where I’m needed.” Johnson said that Tennessee and Kentucky have been showing interest lately, and that he now has offers from West Virginia and Kansas. “It’s a slow process” he said, “and I may need some time. I’m not sure when I’ll make a decision.”

When that decision is eventually made, it certainly sounds like Seton Hall will be there till the very end.

“I knew Jeremy Hazell from The Patterson School, and that’s how I met Coach Derm (Player),” he said. The Seton Hall assistant coach introduced Johnson to his boss, Pirate head man Bobby Gonzalez, and so far it seems like a perfect match. Johnson is known for his fiery nature on the court, and it seems that in the volatile Gonzalez, he has found a kindred spirit.

“I love everything about him,” Johnson said. “His attitude – he’s rough, and that caught my attention. A lot of coaches aren’t like that, they don’t do that. They won’t tell you the truth, but they’ll tell you what you want to hear. We were talking about if the option came for me to go the league (NBA) after one or two years, and he told me he has no problem with that. He keeps it real.”

Johnson said that as of now, he has no visits set up, but that he’ll be trying to line up a visit to Seton Hall soon. He was asked if he felt that there would be any problems with him being eligible his first year, and he said that “right now I’m not nervous at all. Everything is in place.”

Johnson certainly seems to have all the motivation he would ever need to make sure that things are in place. Coach Black told me that Karron’s mother is in poor health, and that he also has a younger brother. “He wants to take care of his mother and brother,” he said. “His mom is sickly, and they are all he has. He’s been forced to grow up and become a man at a young age.”

If Johnson can take care of business, he sounds like a potential nightmare for the opposition. “He has freaky athleticism,” Black said, adding that “I wouldn’t want to jump with him. He’s really a three, and he has a nice spin move on the box. He plays both ends of the floor, and he can dominate on defense because he gets after it.”

Indeed, it’s Johnson’s attitude on the court as much as his talent that appears to make him such a potentially special player. “I look at adversity, and how you have to struggle, and Karron sees that,” Black said. “That’s what he brings, that attitude that he wants to win. He carries that aggression with him on to court. I just see that determination in his eyes.”

Then Coach Black added what sounds like almost unbelievable praise: “I coached Stephon Marbury and Sebastian Telfair, and I said that Lance Stephenson was going to be better than them. I’m telling you that Karron can do in college what Michael Beasley did and do it better. Karron can play both ends of the court.”

As a final note, both Karron and Coach Black wanted to make sure we included a word of thanks and appreciation to Richmond Squires coach Ken Greenway. “He’s worked me out since I was 14, and he’s pretty much been the only guy who works me out,” said Karron.

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