Coach Derrick Wall talks Jamarius Burton's decision to commit to Texas Tech
The Texas Tech coaching staff scored a big time commitment yesterday with the addition of former Wichita State guard Jamarius Burton as a transfer. Burton will sit out the 2020/21 season, but will then have two seasons of eligibility remaining with the Red Raiders.
At RedRaiderSports we wanted to speak with those who know Burton best, and we reached out to his former AAU coach with Team Loaded NC, Derrick Wall. Wall is now an assistant coach at Catawba College.
Coach, first of all thank you for the time. Let's start with Jamarius as a person, what can you tell us about him, is he a leader, is he a vocal guy and what drives him?
"Jamarius is a great kid, he's a leader on and off the court. He gets along with all of his teammates. He leads by example, he's vocal but not too much, I would say he's vocal enough for a point guard.
He leads on and off the court by the way he carries himself. Nobody ever has anything bad to say about him whether it was on or off the court. Even other schools during this process would reach out to the other coaches who were recruiting him and would say what a great kid he is.
His faith in God is really big too. Once you guys start talking to him in the future he's going to talk about his faith and stuff too."
As a player you see 6-foot-4, point guard but he can play off ball as well, his shooting really improved this season, what can you tell us about Jamarius on the floor and how high is his potential? Is he an NBA prospect in your opinion?
"I think he has a really good chance to make it to the league but if I could be biased I'd say all my guys have that chance. Before his injury his junior year he was one of the top players in the state. He was getting high major offers from schools who were recruiting him but then he had the injury that set him back.
A lot of people nationally didn't know who he was but locally schools in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina knew exactly who he was and we always saw the potential. He was really fast, really explosive at one point but then he had the knee injury. It's taken him some time to get back to it, I saw some glimpses of it this past season but with him going to Texas Tech, they're really big on development and that'll really be the biggest thing for his game on the court. Off the court just getting him stronger and getting his body ready for the next level."
I'm sure Jamarius talked with you throughout this process. He had a good situation at Wichita State, he was playing big minutes and you already mentioned a couple reasons for going to Tech such as his development but at the end of the day why Texas Tech over some of his other options like Marquette and Seton Hall and those schools?
"Well I think out of his final four (Texas Tech, Marquette, Seton Hall, Xavier) he really liked all of them and then if you include Ohio State who was in his final five. He liked all the schools and everybody had different selling points and reasons for Jamarius to go there. The thing that separated Texas Tech out of all of them, and it was a hard decision, but the thing that separated Texas Tech versus the other schools was the development aspect.
Coach Beard, how he's hands-on with his guys in development and also how well he does with transfers the last couple years. All the transfers that have come in have had a shot or a chance to play in the league or gotten drafted so that's another thing.
All basketball players have the goal of trying to play professionally, NBA is the ultimate goal and that's where he saw himself choosing Texas Tech. He could sit out, he can work on his craft, he can work on his game, develop his body and also be a better man on and off the court as well and he's already a great kid.
I think that's what coach Beard was preaching to him and he listened wholeheartedly, it was genuine with everything he was saying."
Last question and I'll let you go. I'm sure the Texas Tech coaches reached out to you during this process, what was that like and talk a bit about your relationship with coach Beard, coach Maligi and those guys.
"Yeah I talked to the staff, coach Beard and coach Ulric (Maligi). I talked to Ulric throughout the whole process but Beard dealt more with mom and pops and stuff like that.
I knew of coach Ulric before, I know he was at SMU because one of my former players who is like a brother for me played at East Carolina and they're in the same conference so that's how we kinda knew each other then. Coach also has some family up in Charlotte too which was a good thing because we knew some of the same people.
As far as Ulric and Beard all I heard was good things about them and then the whole staff in general. I know Brian Burg too before he just left. Even other college coaches who were trying to get Jamarius, everybody had nothing but good things to say about Texas Tech, how the program is, how Beard got it rolling, how good their development of players is.
So there's a lot of respect as far as how other Power 5 schools were talking about Tech and that's another thing that kinda won me over as a coach, I liked all his final four options but when I heard and when he and his family heard other schools saying the same things about Texas Tech too, that's how you know it's real."