LSU releases Morgan from commitment

• Advocate sports staff
• Published: May 13, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:30 p.m.

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J’Mison Morgan will not play basketball at LSU.

New Tigers coach Trent Johnson said Tuesday that he contacted Morgan’s AAU Coach, Jazzy Hartwell, on Monday to inform him that he would grant the highly touted player a release from the letter of intent he signed with LSU in November.

Morgan’s mother, Bianca Morgan, said the 6-foot-10, 275-pound center rated as the 25th best player in the country by Rivalshoops.com and 29th by Scouthoops.com, plans to seek a scholarship at UCLA.

"With all the changes at LSU, J’Mison decided he wanted to do something different," Bianca Morgan said. "He wanted to play for John Brady and Butch Pierre and that changed and he wanted to play with Anthony Randolph and he left. That's a lot of things changing and he decided he wanted to go somewhere else.”

Johnson, who was hired to replace the fired Brady on April 10, said he wasn’t disappointed with the outcome of Morgan’s on-again, off-again commitment to LSU. Instead, Johnson said players and recruits leaving when a coaching change is made is reality.

“The bottom line with me will always be that I want players here who want to play for LSU,” Johnson said. “There is some closure with this decision, but no player will ever be bigger than the program. This is a kid who signed with LSU last November because he wanted to come here and now he’s got a lot of outside influences affecting him.

“But disappointment? No. Disappointment is when 13 guys who want to be here buy into a belief and a program and work hard and aren’t able to achieve what they set out to.”