LSU basketball commitment J’Mison Morgan, ranked by Scouts.com as the No. 6 center in the 2008 recruiting class, has decided to honor his letter of intent, according to The Press-Enterprise, in Riverside, Calif.
The 6-foot-11-inch Dallas South Oak Cliff High prospect met with new LSU coach Trent Johnson, The Press-Enterprise reported.
Johnson retaining former LSU interim coach Butch Pierre as an assistant, as well as Johnson’s assurance that Morgan would be a key to the Tigers’ offense, went a long way in securing Morgan’s commitment, according to the report.
“That was a tell-tale point right there,” Morgan’s high school coach James Mays told The Press-Enterprise. “J’Mison wanted to go off somewhere they would play inside-out so he would be involved in the offense. Coach Johnson told him it would not be a bombs-away, three-point shooting offense. He wants to go inside first.”
Morgan had considered asking for a release from his commitment after LSU fired coach John Brady on Feb. 8 and subsequently did not hire Pierre as his permanent replacement.
Rumors circulated after Brady’s firing, linking Morgan to UCLA.
“The staff at UCLA did a great job because they anticipated what might happen,” Mays said. “J’Mison would have come in and immediately helped them, but LSU was closer to home, and it felt like a better fit.”
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]