BigOrangeBasketball.comTennessee Basketball

Not only did Tennessee sign the most highly ranked player ever on Wednesday with the commitment of Tobias Harris, but Bruce Pearl, in his fifth season at UT, has now pushed the national recruiting door open for the program.

Indeed, the Harris announcement yesterday signified a couple of important developments for Tennessee basketball.

If Tennessee is ever going to be able to elevate itself beyond a  Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA tournament, it will need more days like Thursday when a consensus top 10 player nationally commits to the Vols.  If you want to compete with the North Carolina’s, UCLA’s, Duke’s and Texas’s of the world, you have to be able to sign these type of players.

Secondly, yesterday’s announcement sends a message to other high-profile prospects that Tennessee is a player in the big-time recruiting game…that Tennessee is a program on the rise.

Harris’ signing legitimizes what’s happening with Tennessee to a lot of other big-time players.

When the dust settles on the 2009-10 high school hoops season, Harris will undoubtedly be named a McDonald’s All-American, the second (Scotty Hopson) signed by Pearl in three years.  That is signficant.

One can only hope that the Vols can ride this recruiting momentum through the spring with a highly successful season this year. If the Vols can maintain a top 15 ranking and remain near the top of the SEC this year, don’t be surprised if another couple of  national recruits come Tennessee’s way in the spring.

I definitely think JayVaughn Pinkston is still in play, and don’t be surprised if Josh Selby has an about face.

Here’s hoping for more days like yesterday for the Vols.  Let them eat cake!

In a strange twist of events that only the world of college basketball recruiting can produce, the Vols apparently did sign a marquee power forward from New York today.  It just wasn’t JayVaughn Pinkston.

It is now expected that 6-8, 210-pound five-star power foward Tobias Harris, a consensus top five player nationally, will announce his signing with the basketball Vols Thursday at 6:00 p.m. EST on ESPNU from midtown Manhattan’s ESPN Zone.  It is believed that Harris signed today.  It just won’t be announced until Thursday.

It has been undoubtedly a whirlwind last 24 hours for the Vol coaching staff as the fall signing period came to a close today.

It was widely expected that JayVaughn Pinkston, the No. 7 rated power forward in his own right, would announce the signing of his national letter of intent with the Vols today, but that began to unravel last night when Harris and his family showed up at Thompson-Boling Arena Tuesday night for the UT-UNC-Asheville game.

Harris and family were actually in Atlanta on Monday making their final official visit to Georgia Tech.  Instead of returning to New York as planned on Tuesday, Harris and his parents instead drove to Knoxville for an unofficial visit with the Vols.

By the time Harris’ impromptu visit to Knoxville ended Tuesday night, he had committed to the Vols.  That’s when things began to unravel with Pinkston.

It is unclear whether the Vols rescinded their offer to Pinkston once they had the commitment from Harris or whether Pinkston got cold feet after learning that Harris would become a Vol, but Pinkston abruptly cancelled his scheduled announcement today and said he would not sign until the spring.

My guess is that the Vols would have taken Pinkston and Harris, but that Pinkston got cold feet at the last minute when he learned Harris was coming to Tennessee.  The Vols could still sign him in April.

Nonetheless, the anticipated announcement of Harris’ signing with the Vols tomorrow is huge for Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee program.

If you can compare signings between sports, Harris’ anticipated signing with Tennessee in basketball equates to Peyton Manning’s signing with the Vols in football.  This is most certainly one of the top five signees in the history of the program.  Not since Allan Houston came to UT with his father Wade, have the Vols signed someone with the potential impact that Harris could have.

At 6-8 and 210 pounds, Harris had narrowed his choices to Louisville, Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, West Virginia and Tennessee, not exactly college basketball lightweights.  In fact, Harris attended Kentucky’s famed Midnight Madness celebration back in October.

But by all accounts, Harris is a Vol.  It will become official on Thursday.

In somewhat of a surprise move, multiple sources, including the New York Daily News, are reporting that Tennessee will sign one of the nation’s best power forwards, JayVaughn Pinkston, to a national letter of intent today.

JayVaughn Pinkston - Photo Courtesy New York Daily News

Pinkston, a 6-6 220-pounder from Brooklyn, is rated the seventh best power forward in the country.  He will reportedly choose the Vols over St. John’s, UConn, Villanova and West Virginia.

This is huge news for Tennessee.  With shooting guards Trae Golden and Jordan McRae, both ranked in the top 20 at their position, already signed for next year, Pearl is quickly putting together one of the best recruiting classes in the country.

On top of this latest recruiting development, it appears that the Vols are in the final two for Tobias Harris, a 6-8 power forward also from New York, rated the No. 2 power forward in the country.  Harris appears to be down to Tennessee and Syracuse and may sign today or Thursday.

Pinkston’s signing today would be huge momentum for the UT program.  All this after five-star point guard Josh Selby decommited from Tennessee earlier this year.

Pinkston has been compared to a blend of Charles Barkley and Carlos Boozer.  A rugged rebounder with solid offensive skills.

Vol fans will remember the last Tennessee signee from Brooklyn turned out to be a pretty good player.  Some guy named King.

Josh Selby, the No. 1 rated point guard in the country in the class of 2010, has publicly de-commited to play basketball for the Vols.

This is a huge blow for the Vols, but not a complete surprise. Selby, who hails from

Josh Selby

the Baltimore area, has previously played for famed DeMatha High, but is transferring to another Baltimore-area school for his senior season.

When high profile out-of-state prospects like Selby commit, it is usually much more shaky than if the player is from in-state.

Once again, Bruce Pearl and the Vols find themselves missing out on their No. 1 target in a recruiting class.  Two years ago, it was Memphis’ Elliot Williams who ultimately signed with Duke, and last year it was Leslie McDonald, also from Memphis, who eventually signed with North Carolina.

In both prior instances, Pearl did not appear to have a back-up plan in place when he lost both Williams and McDonald. It will be interesting to see if the Vols can make any impact now on another highly touted five-star point guard, Joe Jackson from Memphis, who they have also recruited hard.

The Vols desperately need a point guard.  They desperately need one now.

One could argue that Selby’s commitment to Tennessee was the biggest since Bernard King.  Selby to Tennessee represented the program’s best chance of elevating itself to the highest level ever in the history of UT basketball.

This is a big setback.  If Selby ultimately lands at Kentucky, it will be even bigger.

Melvin Goins

Less than two weeks since being eliminated from the 2009 NCAA Tournament, the Vols wasted no time attempting to bolster next season’s roster with the commitment from a  junior college point guard.

This marks the second year in a row that Tennessee has signed a juco point guard, which raises more questions than answers.

With the commitment of 5-10, 190-pound Melvin Goins from San Jacinto, Calif., Bruce Pearl is signalling several things about next season.

Anytime you get into the habit of signing juco players, much less players of the same position in back-to-back years, you’re admitting you have a problem, and so it appears Pearl is ready to admit he has one.

Clearly, Pearl and his staff were not satified with the production of the tandem of Bobby Maze and Josh Tabb at the point this season.

While the dissatisfaction may be warranted, it’s puzzling that Pearl would offer Goins, a player with fewer credentials than Maze.

Goins is rated a one-star point guard.  He signed out of high school and played one season at Ball State, a mid-major.  Maze at least, came out of junior college by way of Oklahoma.

To make matters more interesting, a roster spot will have to be created in order for Goins to sign.  In other words, someone you otherwise assume would be back will have to leave the program early.

My bet is that person is Daniel West, the point guard from Saginaw, Mich., who was set to play this year before encountering some issues with his academic record.  West has since attended Tennessee on his own dime this year with the expectation that he would rejoin the team next year.

It would appear all bets are off on that one.  I find it hard to believe that Pearl would devote another scholarship to the point guard position, especially to someone with the credentials, or lack thereof, of Goins. 

It’s unclear, however,  whether Goins will have one or two years of eligibility at Tennessee.  The fact that he played one season at Ball State and two in juco leads me to believe he’s one and done at Tennessee, which makes more sense since the Vols have a commitment from five-star point guard Josh Selby for the class of 2010.

The other most likely roster departures would be Wayne Chism, Tyler Smith or Scotty Hopson.  If it’s not West, my next bet would be Chism.  We’ll see.

But clearly Pearl is in reaction mode.  This is a stop-gap measure that quite frankly I don’t believe will cure what ails Tennessee in 2009-10. The program will have to rise above stop gap measures  to get to the next level or back to the previous one.

If you are from Knoxville or you follow Tennessee high school hoops closely, you’ve probably heard of Jalen Steele.  If you fall in neither category, chances are you haven’t.

Jalen Steele

Jalen Steele is a 6-2, 180 junior shooting guard for the Fulton High School Falcons in Knoxville.  His team just last week won the AA State Championship in Murfreesboro for the second year in a row.

Steele was named MVP of the state tournament and scored 22 points in the finals in leading his team to the championship.

Tennessee and Bruce Pearl have heard of Steele, but aren’t recruiting him. South Carolina, Ole Miss, Clemson and Dayton are.  Where’s Tennessee?

The Vols are apparently counting on three verbal commitments for the class of 2010 which would make Steele expendable.

They are Josh Selby, a five-star point guard from famed Dematha High School in Maryland, Jordan McRae, a four-star shooting guard and the No. 11 ranked shooting guard in the USA from Hinesville, GA, and Aaron Craft, a 6-1 point guard from Findlay, OH.

Please note that two of the verbals are point guards.  Steele is a shooting guard.  How many shooting guards did the Vols have on the roster this past season?

Moreover, when you consider the fact that the Vols will definitely lose Tyler Smith, Wayne Chism, J.P. Prince, Bobby Maze, and Josh Tabb after next season if not before, and possibly Scotty Hopson, the Vols will have at least five and possibly six spots to fill on the 2010-2011 roster.  Seemingly plenty of room for Steele.

One former Division I assistant basketball coach who lives in the Knoxville area who has seen Steele play says he could be the next Terrico White.

For those of you unfamiliar with White, a freshman shooting guard from Memphis who plays for Ole Miss, all he did was finish in the top 10 in the SEC in scoring this past season and make second team All-SEC.

I’m not sure I would count on three out-of-state commitments for the recruiting class of 2010 when I have player in my backyard that can shoot the lights out.  If you remember, the Vols had a pretty good shooter a couple of years ago who was overlooked by most people.  Some guy named Lofton.

Where’s Tennessee?