Tennessee Basketball: Could Rick Barnes have something up his sleeve?
Tennessee Basketball is projected to get the No. 1 point guard in the country for the 2021 class, so could Rick Barnes have something up his sleeve?
Tennessee football has been fronting newspapers as Jeremy Pruitt has been making power moves on the recruiting trail, but if Rick Barnes can get a commitment from the best point guard in the country, then Tennessee basketball could take over in the headlines.
This wouldn’t be something new for Barnes and the Vols. Since he arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee basketball’s recruiting has gone to a new level. Tennessee is competing with the blue bloods of college basketball for some of the best athletes in the country, and that’s no different this year.
Corey Evans of Rivals.com believes that the Vols will beat out one blue blood for an elite guard soon. Evans has predicted that the Vols will beat out the Duke Blue Devils for the No. 1 point guard in the 2021 class, Kennedy Chandler.
Chandler is a five-star point guard out of Memphis, which could give Tennessee a little bit of a boost.
"“In the backcourt, the Blue Devils have prioritized Max Christie, Kennedy Chandler, and Trevor Keels,” Evans wrote. “If I had to make a prediction, I think Christie will choose Michigan State, Chandler will ink with Tennessee, and Keels will either head to Villanova or Virginia. Obviously, a lot can change between now and the fall, and it’s never smart to count out the Blue Devils, but that’s how things stand right now.”"
In his prediction of the Blue Devils’ 2021 recruiting class, Evans predicted that the Vols beat out Duke for Chandler which would be another huge signing for Rick Barnes and the Vols.
Tennessee will have a tough fight ahead of them to lock down Chandler. Along with Duke, the Vols will have to also beat out Kentucky, Memphis, and North Carolina to get Chandler to Knoxville.
Barnes has made sure to make Chandler the Vols’ top priority, or at least one of their top priorities, of the 2021 class. I don’t blame them for doing so. Kennedy could help take Tennessee to the next level and get the Vols to its first Final Four in program history.
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Barnes has done a really good job on the recruiting trail so far at Tennessee, so could he have something up his sleeve and get Chandler to Knoxville? We might not have to wait too much longer to wait if he makes his decision this fall when his brother said he will.