Blacksburg - New Virginia Tech basketball coach James Johnson was not able to put head coach on his resume until now but he did have one brief spell as the main man while at Ferrum College.
James Johnson said "Without going into more detail I did coach a game there so I do have a little bit of coaching experience."
When asked to reveal why it was so funny, Johnson divulged a bit more.
Johnson said "He got thrown out of the game. I was an assistant and he got thrown out."
The "He" he refers to is Bill Pullen.
Bill Pullen, FERRUM HEAD COACH 1985-1996, said "We were just playing at Maryville on the road, a long way away in Tennessee and things weren't going too well and I was trying to fire the team up, plus trying to get a couple officials attention and they called two technicals and I had to leave. We were down quite a bit at the time. I don't remember the score. James did a real good job bringing them back. We had a Lynchburg guy, Kevin Keatts, he's at Louisville now and he was playing and almost rallied us back so we've had some successful people from Ferrum and I'm just really happy for him."
When reached by phone, Keatts says he remembers that game like it was yesterday and jokingly said Johnson realized his ability to score and as the years go by, Keatts' point total from that night grows and grows.
