Tennessee Basketball: Rick Barnes continues push for five-star point guard

Tennessee Basketball head coach Rick Barnes is continuing the push for five-star point guard Kennedy Chandler out of Memphis.

Memphis is usually a difficult place for Tennessee basketball and football to recruit. Still, Rick Barnes has made five-star point guard Kennedy Chandler from Memphis a priority even though they can’t meet in person.

Chandler is one of Tennessee’s top targets in the 2021 class, and if the Vols can sign him, then Barnes and the Vols could be on their way to reclaiming Memphis as Tennessee territory again.

A Briarcrest Christian, he averaged 19.5 points, four rebounds, 3.6 steals, and three assists per game as a sophomore. He was also voted TSSAA Division II Class AA Mr. Basketball for back-to-back seasons, including this past Junior season.

As a junior, Chandler averaged 22.2 points and 4.3 assists and led Briarcrest to the State Championship game.

The 6-foot-1 guard is the No. 15 overall prospect in the country, the No. 2 point guard, and the No. 2 player in the state of Tennessee for the 2021 class, according to 247Sports.

Chandler and the Vols have visited each other multiple times, so there’s clearly a relationship there between Barnes and Chandler. With the coronavirus outbreak, it has made things difficult for all coaches to keep up with recruits, but Barnes has continued to make Chandler a priority.

The Vols’ prospect sat down with StockRisers.com and he discussed how he’s keeping in touch with teams amid being stuck at home.

A lot of teams would like to bring Chandler to their campus. Along with Tennessee, Ole Miss, Duke, Michigan, and Kentucky have also been calling and texting Chandler.

He specifically mentioned Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis and Tennessee assistant Kim English FaceTiming him.

When it comes to recruiting visits, Chandler isn’t planning on changing anything as of right now when it comes to who he wants to visit and when.

"“No, it hasn’t changed anything because I still have to take my other visits,” Chandler told Weingarten about his visit schedule."

Tennessee is one of five schools that previously had Chandler on their campus, so out of his top-ten teams that he’s listed, the Vols have an upper hand on half of them. Tennessee, Florida State, Syracuse, Ole Miss, and Michigan all had Chandler on campus before everything shut down.

"“Decision is still questionable right now,” Chandler told Weingarten. “I’m going to cut my list [again], I just don’t know when.”"

Chandler is planning on cutting his list down, and that could come before he is allowed to visit campuses again or before coaches can come to visit him. That means the upper hand that Tennessee and the four other schools have is crucial in signing Chandler or at least being on his cut-down list.

Barnes is an elite recruiter, so I’m not worried about him losing Chandler so early in the process. If he’s really interested in coming to Tennessee, then I think we could see him in orange and white in a couple of seasons.