By Jim McConnell
Sports Editor

For some basketball coaches, the game is about X’s and O’s, drawing up the perfect play to create a strategic advantage while moving players around like life-size chess pieces on a 94-foot board.

For James Johnson, it’s always been about relationships.

The Powhatan High graduate, a self-described “people person,” didn’t pursue a career in coaching because of the money or the glamour or the fame. He wasn’t primarily motivated by a desire to compete in the game’s cathedrals or test his tactical expertise against basketball savants such as Duke’s famed Coach K.

“My college coach [former Ferrum College coach Bill Pullen] had a tremendous impact on my life and my basketball career,” Johnson recalled during an early-morning telephone interview earlier this month. “I loved the game and I wanted an opportunity to have a positive impact on young men’s lives.”

Johnson, a three-time defensive player of the year at Ferrum and a 2009 inductee into the school’s Hall of Fame, began his coaching career at his alma mater 18 years ago. He went on to spend time as an assistant coach at Old Dominion, Elon, Charleston, Penn State and George Mason, a nomadic existence that ultimately led him from one pinnacle of his profession (the 2006 Final Four) to another (the Atlantic Coast Conference).

Hired in ‘07 as an assistant to Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg, Johnson was promoted to associate head coach two years later. He’s one of the sport’s rising young stars, a top-shelf recruiter and tireless worker who has been described by his boss on several occasions as “a head coach waiting to happen.” 

“James Johnson is one of the elite assistant coaches in all of college basketball,” Greenberg said in a 2009 university press release announcing Johnson’s new title. “His attention to detail, his commitment to the development of the student-athlete and his ability to communicate are second to none.”

Johnson, who acknowledged he’s “come a long way from Powhatan and Ferrum,” believes a higher power has been at work in guiding his career path.

“I thank God every day for my job,” he said. “I never think about the long hours. I never think about the money. It’s a love and a passion for me.”

Having already proven himself as an assistant, the question becomes: When will a school hire Johnson to run his own program?

He said he’s received overtures from programs that were in the market for a head coach over the last couple seasons, but wasn’t willing to leave Virginia Tech “just to say I’m a head coach.”

“I’m in a really good situation here, so I want to make sure it’s the right fit,” Johnson said. “For the most part, the jobs that are available are situations where something happened and they weren’t successful for whatever reason.”

What would constitute the “right fit” at this point in his coaching career?

“I want to go to a program where we’ll have a chance to win, where the program has the support of the administration and I’ll be able to bring in the type of kids I want,” he added.

Unlike many of the nation’s top assistants, Johnson has opted not to participate in the Villa Seven Consortium, a partnership between VCU’s Center for Sport Leadership, VCU Athletics and Nike that brings together elite assistant coaches and athletic directors to enhance the pool of available head coaching candidates.

“I’m just about doing my job to the best of my ability and letting my work speak for itself,” he said.

Johnson’s father, Johnny, never envisioned his son pursuing coaching as a profession in the first place. He doesn’t think there’s any rush for James to step up to the “big chair.”

Father and son talk two or three times a week – even during the season – but basketball isn’t one of the more popular topics of conversation.

“I don’t really get into his business,” Johnny Johnson said. “I’m not trying to push him into anything. I’ve encouraged him to become a head coach if he thinks he’s strong enough.”
The younger Johnson is too busy trying to get Virginia Tech into the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007 to think about the big picture and his career goals.

During the season, he’s almost always in the office by 6 a.m. He gets in a quick workout and is at his desk by 6:45; as the Hokies’ chief defensive strategist, he spends hours poring over video of their upcoming opponent, developing a scouting report he conveys to the players in daily workouts.

When Virginia Tech plays home games, it’s dark outside when Johnson arrives at work and dark when he heads for home. There’s travel for road games and both in- and out-of-season recruiting trips.

He also dedicates time during the week to counsel Virginia Tech’s players about a variety of on- and off-court issues. Whether it’s academics, a lack of playing time or even girl problems, Johnson makes sure he has a finger on the pulse of what’s happening inside the Hokies’ locker room.

“I have a good relationship with all of our players because they know I want the best for them,” he said. “I can talk with them or laugh and joke and have fun with them.”

Those relationships were why, after giving up 45 precious minutes in his jam-packed daily schedule, Johnson finally had to get off the phone.

He had a couple more hours of work to do before he ducked out of the office in time for a very special mid-day diversion: Virginia Tech’s December commencement ceremony. J.T. Thompson, part of Johnson’s first recruiting class as a member of Greenberg’s staff, was one of the graduates.

Johnson had never stayed at any of his previous schools long enough to see a recruiting class through to graduation. So the opportunity to watch Thompson, a rugged forward who has endured two serious knee injuries during his college basketball career, receive his diploma from Virginia Tech was one Johnson wouldn’t have missed for the world.

“The two hours people see me or Virginia Tech on television is all good. But there’s a lot that goes into that, from when you first identify a kid as somebody you want to recruit,” Johnson said.

“You have to evaluate whether he’ll be able to fit socially and academically in Blacksburg. Athletically, will he be able to play in the ACC? As coaches, we’re fathers and uncles and big brothers to these young men. We’re constantly talking to them and teaching them.

“Winning is obviously very important. But to see a young man walk across that stage is very fulfilling to me … it’s why I got into the business in the first place.”

The “business” has most certainly been better for that decision.