Virginia Tech announced late last night in a press release on hokiesports.com that freshman forward Jarrell Eddie is suspended for the remainder of Tech’s basketball season and will not be eligible to play again until next season. Eddie was arrested February 15th by Blacksburg police and charged with possession of marijuana.
Eddie has played sparingly since his arrest. He sat out the game at Virginia on Feb. 19, then played Feb. 22 at Wake Forest and scored a career-high 17 points. He played 3 minutes and 8 minutes in Tech’s following games against Duke and Boston College and did not score in either game. He did not play in Tech’s loss at Clemson on Saturday, March 5.
Tech head coach Seth Greenberg has been questioned by the media about Eddie’s playing status, and responded during the Clemson post-game press conference with, “When you’re king, you get choices. It’s great to be king. You decide who plays and who doesn’t play. If you want to talk about the basketball game – I did not play him. That’s my prerogative. I have a prerogative to play whoever I want.”
In the hokiesports.com press release covering Eddie’s suspension, Greenberg said, “Jarell Eddie is a excellent student, a fine young man and a great teammate. He made a mistake in judgment and is paying the price for that mistake.”
Virginia Tech officials and Seth Greenberg will answer no more questions concerning the matter and consider it closed for discussion.
Eddie averaged 10.9 minutes per game this season. His suspension leaves Virginia Tech with just seven scholarship players: their starting five plus backups Tyrone Garland and Manny Atkins. Atkins is averaging 11.2 minutes per game and Garland is averaging 6.3 minutes per game. Over the last six games, Garland has averaged just four minutes per game, while Atkins has played 37 minutes in Tech’s last two games.
The Hokies open play in the ACC Tournament tonight at approximately 9:15 PM against Georgia Tech. The game will be televised on the ACC Network (check local listings).
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