Sweet Shooting Lang Excited To Be A Hokie

In the hours following an unofficial visit to Louisiana-Lafayette in the spring of 2013, McGill-Toolen Catholic High School (Mobile, AL) standout TJ Lang received a phone call from Virginia Tech’s James Johnson.  The message from the Hokies head men’s basketball coach was simple.

“He was telling me that whenever the possibility was there he would come to watch me play,” said Lang, a 6’7″, 190-pound wing guard/forward now in his senior year.  “The first AAU game he saw me play, it was just him.  The next game, he was there again.  He kept showing up to all my games.  Then it wasn’t just him.  A few other of his coaches would join him.  Then he had pretty much the whole staff there.”

Virginia Tech — and other schools, for that matter — stepped up its pursuit of Lang in July, which is an important month on the AAU circuit.  Lang performed well on a talented Game Elite squad, continuing to show the form he displayed during his junior season at McGill-Toolen.

“He really had a good July with his travel team.  Virginia Tech saw him play up in Las Vegas (at the Adidas Super 64), and I think they turned the corner after that performance,” McGill-Toolen head coach Phillip Murphy said of Lang, who averaged 17.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game as a junior, leading the Yellow Jackets to a 25-7 overall record.  “They started calling me immediately after.”

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