On Monday, DerMarr Johnson was brought on by West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins to join the West Virginia coaching staff. The life lessons — on and off the court — are what will help Johnson leave his mark on the Mountaineer basketball program.
Johnson’s history with Huggins is a lengthy one. Johnson grew up in the Washington D.C. area and was recruited to the University of Cincinnati by Huggins to play for him.
Go back to the late 1990’s when Johnson was a top recruit. Huggins followed a countless number of coaches from the top programs in the country. His recruiting pitch to Johnson was simple — do you want to win.
“What I said to him was you want to go win a national championship,” Huggins said.
Huggins explained to Johnson he would add versatility and be able to play as a guard off the ball.
“The place that I have that I think you fit is as an off-guard,” Huggins said. “Because you can shoot it, you can pass it, you give us even more size than we have now, even more athleticism than what we have now — let’s go win a national championship. That was it. Next think I know he calls and says, ‘I’m coming coach.’”
Johnson will be tasked with helping improve the guard position at WVU. Johnson’s on-court abilities have already been shown, which has impressed many on West Virginia’s roster.
“Our guys are over stretching and he’s just kind of fooling around and he walks out to the WV in the middle of the floor and drains about six straight that didn’t even hit the rim,” Huggins said. “And [players] are going like wow.”
Current players Kedrian Johnson and Joe Toussaint feel Johnson having played for Huggins before as well as being a former professional, help everyone on the team.
“He’s an ex-professional basketball player. We can learn a lot from him, I feel like he’ll be good for this program and us guards in particular,” Kedrian Johnson said. Toussaint added by calling the hire a “no-brainer.”
These players also know of the career Johnson had. Johnson played professional basketball for 16 years, with seven of those seasons spent in the NBA after he was selected sixth overall in the 2000 NBA Draft.
“[Players] know he had an NBA career in spite of the fact in a car wreck that he was lucky to be able to do what he’s doing now,” Huggins said. “For anybody to think that he’s this tall, skinny guy who’s soft, when you stop and think what this guy came through to come back and play in the NBA.”
That wreck occurred when Johnson was 22. A month before the NBA season was set to begin Johnson hit a tree while driving early in the morning near his Washington D.C. area home. Johnson would break his neck in four places.
“To walk in there and see that halo on his head and to come out of that the way he came out of that and still be as productive as he was as a player is absolutely remarkable,” Huggins said.
During his NBA career, Johnson played in 344 games. He averaged 6.2 points per game and 2.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 41 percent from the field in his career.
“He’s got great experience; he’s played at the highest level there is in college basketball. He’s played at the highest level there is in professional basketball,” Huggins said.
Johnson being from the Washington D.C. area will also be a huge help to recruiting for Huggins.
“I’m not embarrassed to say it, we haven’t done a very good job in [Washington] D.C.,” Huggins said. “We need to get in [Washington D.C.] and do a better job and he’s as good a guy as there is to go in and help us do that.”
Besides the strategic add to recruiting, the career Johnson had and his connections to Huggins, one of the reasons the addition of Johnson is so big in Huggins’ eyes is because how he is as a person.
“He’s a great person; just an absolutely great person,” Huggins said. “He’s got experience to be where a lot of those guys would like to be.”
And while the addition of Johnson is not a major splash by any means, it brings value that will be seen both on the hardwood and off it.
