Tennessee Basketball: Rick Barnes wins major recruiting battle with 5-star guard Josiah James

Rick Barnes has done a great job in rebuilding Tennessee Basketball. Those effects seem to have worked, with five-star Josiah James coming aboard.

Rick Barnes has never truly gotten the respect he deserves as a head coach.  During his stints with the Texas Longhorns and now with the Tennessee Volunteers, he has built programs up quickly and infused the programs with talent.  When Barnes arrived at Tennessee the Volunteers were reeling and trying to pick up the pieces from the sanctions brought upon them by former coach Bruce Pearl, and the lack of talent from the poor recruiting job done by Cuonzo Martin and Donnie Tyndall.

Last season, the Volunteers were the regular season co-champions with Auburn. Barnes led the Volunteers to the finals of the conference tournament. Tennessee received an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament and was eliminated in a highly competitive game against cinderella Loyola-Chicago. The momentum that Barnes has built with the Volunteer program, is exactly what the Athletic Director envisioned when Barnes was hired.

On Wednesday morning the momentum for the Volunteer basketball program picked up more steam. Barnes and his staff were able to secure a commitment from 2019 5 star and top 15 ranked combo guard Josiah James. James committing to Tennessee was a huge surprise as many believed the South Carolina native would choose his home state school in Clemson.  James picked Tennessee over his other two finalists of Duke and Clemson.

In a previous article it was mentioned what James is going to bring to any of the teams he decided to commit to. The fans in Knoxville will see a guard who is quick enough to beat most players to the rim for easy finishes. The guard is skilled enough to blow by a defender and stop for a pull-up jumper in the lane or a three-pointer.  He does need to work on his defense as most incoming freshmen do.  The combo guard is a good rebounder for his size as well.

Tennessee winning this recruiting battle speaks volumes to the job that Barnes has done since taking over in Knoxville. The head coach has always been a great recruiter, even going back to his days at Texas.  While at Texas he successfully recruited and coached many NBA players including Kevin Durant.  Durant was a player who was only in Austin for one year, but during that year he lived up to his lofty recruiting ranking out of high school.

James, who plays a different position than Durant does, but could have the same impact on Barnes and his new program.  Players who possess the skills that James does do not come around every year, and should be treated as program defining players.  The blue blood teams of Duke, Arizona, Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina usually land the players with the prowess of James.

If the Volunteers can start to successfully recruit players with the pedigree of James, Barnes is going to do huge things in Knoxville.  He is entering his fourth year at the helm, and he has already done a fantastic job of infusing the program with talent.  Adding James to the mix will keep the Volunteers momentum going well into 2019, and hopefully after.