Rick Barnes can’t recruit? Tennessee picks up commitment from 5-star G Josiah James
Published:
Tennessee picked up a huge commitment on Wednesday in Josiah James, a consensus five-star recruit from Porter-Gaud School in Charleston, SC.
According to 247sports, James is classified as the No. 14 recruit in the 2019 class, the No. 3 combo guard and the No. 1 recruit in the state of South Carolina.
Being from South Carolina, Clemson was previously considered the favorite for James, but he reportedly was high on Duke as well as the Vols.
James is a big guard with a 6-foot-9 wingspan that allows him to play and defend multiple positions.
With virtually every player returning for the Vols, several outlets have Tennessee listed as a top five team in college basketball’s preseason rankings.
James will join an exciting back court made up of Jordan Bone, Jordan Bowden and Lamonte Turner, who all played well for the Vols last season.
Tennessee racked up several SEC awards last year: Rick Barnes was named the Coach of the Year, Grant Williams was named Player of the Year and Lamonte Turner was named Co-Sixth-Man of the year.
The Vols went 26-9 (13-5), and earned a share of the SEC regular season championship with Auburn. Tennessee received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 3 seed in the South region, where they defeated No. 14 Wright State before losing to the Cinderella of the 2018 Tournament, No. 11 Loyola Chicago, who made it all the way to the Final Four.
You can watch his highlight tape here, courtesy of HoopDiamonds on Youtube:
Jordan Dajani covers SEC football for Saturday Down South and is a University of Tennessee graduate. He also has experience working in the NBA and with ESPN.
