NCAA Basketball Recruiting Winners: Tennessee, MSU find building blocks

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 11: Head coach Dan Hurley of the Rhode Island Rams looks on against the Davidson Wildcats during the first half in the Championship of the Atlantic 10 Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 11, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

3 of 6

ST LOUIS, MO – MARCH 10: Rick Barnes the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers gives instructions. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

Josiah James kicks off Tennessee’s 2019 class

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes simply knows how to run a college basketball program. After a dominant stretch of years with the Texas Longhorns from 1998-2015, he is now turning the Volunteers into an elite program in the SEC. After an extremely strong 2017-18 campaign, Tennessee is bringing back a ton of talent for this year and looks poised to be a top-10 team in the country.

And now that elite recruit Josiah James (No. 14) is committed for the 2019 class, it is clear that the Vols are continuing to trend in the right direction under the leadership of Coach Barnes. James was the highest-rated recruit to make his college decision during the past week and he is the third player committed for Tennessee’s 2019 class. James will join Drew Pember (No. 202) and Davonte Gaines (No. 330) in the class, which is now ranked at No. 13 in the nation.

James is the type of scoring guard to build a team around for the 2019-20 season and he might be able to help Coach Barnes entice other top talents to join the program in the future. Almost all of the crystal ball predictions for James were heading in the direction of Clemson (15 out of 16) prior to his commitment to Tennessee so this was a major coup for the program.

Home/NCAA Basketball News