NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Analyzing top-30 forward Julian Phillips top 10 teams

Tennessee Volunteers

The frontcourt was the Vols weakness last season, despite having multiple seniors on the roster. But they got a major talent overhaul this offseason with the pickups of five-star power forward  Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and top-50 center Jonas Aidoo. And with John Fulkerson coming back for a 5th year, the Vols will be in good shape for 2021-22.

But if Huntley-Hatfield is a one-and-done NBA prospect, Tennessee will have to get another quality forward. They have center Handje Tamba and four-star guard BJ Edwards part of the current 2022 class and has plenty of quality underclassmen talent going forward. If we knew what Huntley-Hatfield was doing, this option would be more appealing for Phillips. But still, the Vols are a good program overall that just sent multiple players to the NBA Draft and head coach Rick Barnes is one of the best developers in the game.

UCLA Bruins

What’s interesting about the Bruins is that their roster for the upcoming season is one of the deepest in the country. Yet still, they don’t have a true power forward, as Jaime Jaquez, Jr. will get most of the minutes as a small-ball four, while Rutgers transfer Myles Johnson and Cody Riley are both centers.

UCLA already is building up a top-tier 2022 class, landing committments of five-star guard Amari Bailey and four-star guard Dylan Andrews. They’re in the mix for several big men and they may have better luck focusing on western-based recruits but Phillips would have a reasonable shot at starting as a freshman and this is a program under head coach Mick Cronin that is in very strong shape overall.