The honeymoon is over, according to David Teel, Dorian Finney-Smith intends to transfer, "Virginia Tech's most acclaimed basketball recruit in more than a generation, plans to transfer after just one season with the Hokies, sources said Tuesday."
This is the first bit of adversity James Johnson will have to deal with during his tenure. Johnson was able to keep Erick Green in Blacksburg, and Marshall Wood coming to town. Although, Doe-Doe might had been out the door even if Seth Greenberg was still the Head Hokie (I couldn't resist).
Just to be clear: Sources say Finney-Smith's planned transfer unrelated to #Hokies coaching change. "This has been brewing for months."
— David Teel (@DavidTeelatDP) May 8, 2012
However, Greenberg was the primary reason Finney-Smith ended up in Blacksburg.
"I chose Virginia Tech because Coach Greenberg recruited me himself," said Finney-Smith, who chose the Hokies over Florida and Old Dominion. "Plus, I wanted to win a national championship in my home state."
Doe-Doe didn't have as productive a freshman year as many expected the blue-chip recruit would. The low was an 0 for 25 shooting slump during the middle of ACC play. During the season Seth Greenberg mentioned he needed to adjustment his shooting form. Even though he struggled, he finished stronger than he started, and his freakish athleticism and size made for a high ceiling. He would have been an important piece on next year's team.
I wish him the best of luck wherever he ends up.
Here are a few updates
The logistics of the decision from Teel's now updated post.
Tom Gabbard, Tech's associate athletic director in charge of basketball, said Finney-Smith's mother, Desiree Finney, requested her son's release last weekend in a meeting with Gabbard and new Hokies coach James Johnson.
Previously, Johnson had met with Finney-Smith and Desiree Finney, according to Gabbard.
"J.J.'s position is going to be if you don't want to be at Virginia Tech and you're unhappy here, we don't want you here," Gabbard said. "We're trying to build something. You only go through this (playing college basketball) once, and you need to be happy."
Gabbard added that Tech will grant Finney-Smith his release to a school "not in direct competition" with the Hokies, meaning an ACC rival.
Even though his older brother Ben played there, and former Tech assistant John Richardson (who he was tight with) works there again, it's been reported he won't try to transfer to ODU.
Finney-Smith not interested in transfer to #odu, according to his mother, Desiree Finney.
— Ed Miller (@edmillervp) May 8, 2012
Finally, James Johnson's let's just move on and worry about us attitude is refreshing.
"We've got enough pieces that we'll be okay, not to take anything from Dorian," Johnson said. "He was a heck of a player, had a good freshman year, was a big rebounder for us. But we've got enough pieces that we'll be okay — you've got Jarell Eddie, C.J. Barksdale will have to step up, you've got Marshall Wood, an incoming freshman."
Let's see where we go from here.
Comments
Just A Thought
If Greenberg was the reason that DFS wanted to leave that would make him the 6th Transfer under Greenberg's tenure: Thorns, Boggs, Atkins, Garland, Thompson and Finney-Smith. While Thompson might have transferred out to be closer to home it still makes you wonder.
I don't think Greenberg was the reason, as Teel said it was brewing and if it were Greenberg he would probably be more likely to stay now that he's gone. If anything, it seems he left because Seth is out now. I also don't think it's fair to blame Seth for some of these transfers. Garland and Thorns left because they were buried behind great PG's and weren't getting the playing time they thought they deserved. Boggs wasn't playing at all so that was likely the reason he left too. A handful of transfers over a 9 year tenure isn't all that bad.
I don't know
Seeing what some of the older players had said when Greenberg was fired it seems like he wasn't a player favorite and he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Teel said DFS wasn't happy at Tech and I believe that Greenberg had something to do with it. But again that's just my take on it. 6 players transferring in 9 years is a lot of turnover. Not to mention all the assistants we lost under Greenberg as well. We need stability in our roster and some guys will just have to deal with being the 2nd string guys. With only 8 players on the roster we need as much help as we can get.
Actually VT's retention rates were near bottom of ACC
An article was recently done on another VT sports site that broke down players leaving for all ACC schools. VT was one of the bottom 3 and that was despite not having any coach turnover, unlike the other schools at the bottom.
There are plenty of players that stick around despite not being starters at other schools. This was all about Coach Greenberg. That does not mean that DFS would have necessarily left if Greenberg had not been fired but VT had well above average attrition during Seth's tenure.
Edit: I went back to the article and VT is actually second to last since they joined the ACC, only ahead of Wake Forest. Wake Forest have a coach pass away and another coach fired during that time. VT only had 13 of 27 players start and finish their careers at VT since 2004.
not correct on seth
he almost did this earlier with 2 other starters.
if anything jj made him reconsider.
I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this. It's tough losing him because I was really excited to see him in the fall with his tough freshman year behind him. I think it's a shame, really, because he could have brought so much to the table with this team, and I don't know that he will succeed as well at ODU, but who knows?
Hate to see him
leave but if you watched any games this year the kid never looked comfortable or really into the game he always had a lost look on his face can't blame a kid if he is not happy.
Unfortunately,
that also means we lose this...
http://imgur.com/Ww7rn
And who wouldn't want to lose that face?
Reaction
I believe we also had Nigel Munson transfer out of the program under Greenberg as well if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, it does stink to see him leave, but if a kid isn't comfortable playing for a coach or at a particular school, then I have to say let him find a better fit and best of luck. I don't think he was ever fully comfortable with his role and the expectations on him and that class. He was expected to do so much, and he did a whole lot, but he didn't score a ton and I think that's where people wanted to see his impact the most.
Tough break, but I wish him the best.
However, if Montrezl Harrell remains committed here, I still like this team a whole lot coming back next year. Heck, even if Harrell doesn't come here, there's a lot to be excited about next year.
I'd actually say that with Doe-Doe leaving it makes Harrell coming back even more likely. It practically gives him a starting spot the minute he walks on campus.
I can't agree
They don't play the same position. If I was Harrell, I'd see this as something that makes the team worse, not something that improves my chances at playing time.
I can't agree to your disagree
He's actually a small/power forward combo, meaning they play they exact same position. And with Jarrell Eddie possibly moving to the 2, Harrell could actually play the 3 right away, and act as a more efficient 3/4 combo. And with Doe Doe transferring (meaning that we lose about 7 points and 7 boards a game), I don't think that he's actually turned away by the transfer, but encouraged, giving him more playing time and being energized by a younger, more player-friendly coaching regime.
Also, Harrell never played with Doe Doe on an AAU team, and has no connections with him in terms of recruiters or campus hosts...I don't think that this has any effect on him, but if it does, it's probably a (slightly) positive one.
I love VT basketball but this just made me finally realize that our BB program is an absolute joke
We haven't bottomed out yet.
I think we can still be competitive in the lower half of the ACC next year. For whatever that's worth.
probably
won't be top half, but shouldn't be wake, bc bottom out bad from 2 yrs ago. that was all time acc bad.
Good luck to him
He didn't look comfortable at all with the team on the court. I had high hopes and thought everything was going to be great because we got such a high caliber player, but from watching him it didn't feel right. That might have been because of the style of play or the transition to college bball, but the bottom line was that he wasn't going to reach his peak here. It's tough for a high school kid to know how he is going to fit in the program and I don't think this was the best fit for him. Would have loved for him to stay and try to figure it out under the new coach but that's not fair to him. I hope the best for him and think we'll be hearing his name come up down the road at some point.
yeah
he played point fwd in h.s. ... transitioning to undersized pf in an offense not what he was use too, tough fit.
either he has to adapt someplace else or he finds a coach that can take advantage of his unique skill set better.
transfer
he's going to have success wherever he goes pretty much. It's the degree of success that will determine on what system and what players are in place. I think if you offered the challenge of having to "take advantage of his unique skill set" to most coaches they would ask "where do i sign." Personally I think he'd do well in the big east. He's a good fit for Georgetown or Syracuse in my opinion.
Not a Greenberg fan but
Greenberg is gone, so what does he have to do with DFS wanting to transfer? Don't want to see him go, but oh well. Deuces.
absolutely nothing
dfs wanted to leave before seth was fired. was talked out of it, sorta. pretty damn confident he was going to leave at the end of the semester anyway.
Probably
Was recruited away. Kentucky is looking for a few good men since their turnover rate is pretty high too.
Doe-Doe's release
probably says more about how JJ views him. If JJ thought Doe-Doe was vital, he would have encouraged him to stay. I mean, how hard is it to convince Doe-Doe that his unhappiness was all about Greenberg, and now that he's gone, we are going to have a much happier, richer basketball environment.
I think this quote says it all:
Sounds like JJ didn't even try to make him happy.
what else would he say?
Of course we don't want guys here who aren't going to be happy here. That does not equate to not trying to make them happy here. How hard is it to convince Doe-Doe that his unhappiness was all about Greenberg? No idea. Every person is different. Some people can be more easily swayed than others. Could be his mind was just made up. Be careful here. You sound like you're denigrating DFS, and that's harsh unless it's based on something firmer.
He could say
"We really want Doe-Doe on our team. He's a great player and will be apart of the winning tradition we are establishing. We will do whatever it takes to make DFS happy here."
It didn't sound like he tried to keep him on the team. If he did, Gabbard had a very poor choice of words to show that JJ exhausted all efforts to placate and keep Doe-Doe happy.
This quote from JJ
speaks volumes on his opinion of Doe-Doe. In response to being asked about Finney-Smith and Harrell:
JJ did also mentioned he really wanted Harrell to stay with the team, and I truly believe he put in a lot of effort to keep Harrell. But he hasn't said one thing positive about Doe-Doe. I don't know, my take is JJ didn't care much for Finney-Smith.
get it?
get it?
Scholarships Available!
VT is looking for a few good men to play basketball at a high level!