Negedu Caps Off Amazing Recruiting Weekend

This afternoon’s post was originally going to be devoted to my dysfunctional refrigerator, which has now been fixed as far as I know (thanks to Mike the maintenance man for his work). I had a good bit of food – including a gallon and a half of milk souring – go bad due to an over-frozen freezer and bad defroster over the weekend when I went out of town.

But that’s nothing now, as former Arizona commitment Emmanuel Negedu has chosen Tennessee over Indiana, Georgia Tech, and Memphis. I had a good feeling this was coming, despite connections Negedu had with an assistant coach at Memphis who was heavily involved in his recruitment at Arizona. I even predicted it in the Leslie McDonald/Elliot Williams post from last week.

Emmanuel Negedu is from Nigeria, and CBS was filming a documentary on his life-story at the time of his commitment.

What does this mean for Tennessee? First off, we now know Bruce Pearl can recruit. We’re still working on directly competing with Duke and Carolina, but in the face of the Ramar Smith and Duke Crews dismissal, Bruce was able to go out and get a JUCO PG Bobby Maze (who by many accounts was pretty good last night in the opening night of the Rocky Top League) to replace Smith, and he was able to go out and land a top-50 player like Negedu.

Allen Iverson – I mean, BOBBY MAZE – is another late commitment that will make an impact for the Vols next season.

Secondly, we just got EVEN more talented. Look, I know we are going to be young next year, and we lost two amazing guards who were deadly from outside in Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith. But we are going to have some pretty ridiculous talent in the floor, both inside with Tyler Smith and Wayne Chism (with Brian Williams, Renaldo Woolridge and Negedu off the bench) and outside with Scotty Hopson and JP Prince (throw in Daniel West, Cameron Tatum and defensive-specialist Josh Tabb). Also from what I have read, Negedu has a better skill set than Duke Crews, who he is essentially replacing, which should definitely help Tennessee offensively.

We will also be much longer defensively, which should help the press. Also, I would look to see some more zone. Tennessee fans saw this up-close with Louisville, who on the wings had 6-foot-6 Terrance Williams and 6-foot-9 Earl Clark closing out on the corners and wings. Tennessee has a chance to be at least 6-foot-7 in those same positions.

This is what the top programs in the country do. They don’t rebuild, they reload. We’re losing a great bit of scoring, yes, but this team is going to be different – I think we’ll be much more inside-oriented, with the offense revolving around Smith and Chism. Oh we’re still gonna jack up threes, but I think we are still the favorites to win the SEC.

And I did not forget the recruiting roll the football coaches got this weekend. Three offensive lineman – Kevin Revis, Aubrey Phillips, JerQuari Schofield – athlete Nyshier Oliver and the best of the weekend in Florida HB Jarvis Giles. Most of these commitments are resulting from the camp Tennessee up here in Knoxville last week.

Revis looks like he’s gonna be a center (he’s got the smarts from all accounts), Phillips had some solid offers and could play either offense or defense on the line, and Schofield has been said to be ranked when the next rankings come out. Tennessee needs offensive lineman (it’s a given we need DTs too, not even worth mentioning) like mad, and I trust that Philip Fulmer, a former offensive lineman himself, knows what he’s looking for with those guys. Oliver was a three-star, underrated athlete who will probably end up in the secondary. He has been said to move up a star at the next rankings.

But the most exciting commitment was Giles, for a couple reasons. First, go watch his film – it’s sick. Secondly, he’s from Florida, and Florida has the best players in the South to the point where in my own opinion a three-star player from Florida may be better than a four-star player from a state like Tennessee or Kentucky, where the competition may not be as high. Also, new RB coach Stan Drayton pulled Giles in, and Drayton was probably brought in for his recruiting ability more than maybe anything else. I think he will be a very effective replacement for the departed (and loved) Trooper Taylor, and he also brings Florida connections.

I know, it’s just five commitments, but it’s June. I’ll take it. And I can’t wait to get another SEC basketball Championship shirt again this year…