From Basilio this morning:
Chaz Lanier Latest:
You're probably reading the Chaz Lanier stuff with him visiting BYU and Kentucky and saying this isn't how is was supposed to work out. You'd be right. The way the Lanier thing was supposed to work is that he was going to enroll at Tennessee after graduating from North Florida. The original plan before all this blew up was for Lanier to try the NBA draft waters and ultimately end up at Tennessee with very little fanfare. That's what Tennessee thought was going to happen. Two things happened along the way that changed the equation.
1. The NCAA Altered Their Rules For All Players Making Portal Entry Mandatory:
All players (even graduated players) are now required to enter the transfer portal. This is an NCAA change that occurred literally right at the opening of the spring transfer window. This caught Tennessee by surprise. Under the old rules, a player like Lanier who was a grad transfer didn't have to enter the portal, but was free to enroll at his next school. This is what Tennessee hoped would happen when they first got involved with him a few months back. Once Lanier was forced to enter the portal the equation changed.
2. Lanier Hired An Agent:
Again ... It wasn't supposed to go down this way. Tennessee originally had a loose understanding with Lanier and his family on an outline toward an NIL agreement. As we've told you here in preceding reports, Tennessee doesn't get into specifics NIL wise with prospects until they're on campus. This is almost the opposite of the way football recruiting is handled in Knoxville. With Lanier there was a loose understanding ballpark figure wise for what it was going to take (which has since exploded) to land him.
How Is BYU Involved?
It's called having an agent. See if you can follow this. Deirunas Visockas, the agent for Chaz Lanier, also represents other NBA players. One of his clients played for the Phoenix Suns this past season and was coached by new BYU Head Coach Kevin Young there in the Valley. Young is an NBA guy who's leveraging his connections from his role as an associate head coach with the Suns in the NBA at his new stop in Provo, Utah. Put it this way, the agent connection is the only thing that makes sense with Lanier and BYU.
This is a young man who's the child of a Baptist minister I'm talking about here. I've been told that if it comes down to the highest offer, Lanier is going to play for the Cougars next season as they've been extremely aggressive toward him NIL wise. In fact, I was told by sources close to this that word of Kentucky's offer has been grossly exaggerated in the media while BYU's has been undersold.
What's Going To Happen?
If Lanier makes it to Knoxville, Tennessee will get the last crack at him prior to Wednesday's one-week dead period. All potential suitors for Lanier want to get this done this week. Being last in these deals never hurts.
I'm wondering now what kind of stomach Tennessee is going to have to see this through. They committed to this kid to the point where they promised him on the front end of their courtship that they wouldn't recruit anyone else at his position. Tennessee kept their word. I was told that Lanier, though looking around at other schools, has been highly communicative with Tennessee every step of the way and that this is appreciated within Tennessee's program.
It's just that the portal requirement coupled with agent involvement has really muddied the waters here. If Tennessee fails to land him it's going to put all kinds of pressure on Cam Carr to grow up in a hurry and it will leave Tennessee with some egg on their face as they only have 10 players going into the dead period. Spring NIL era basketball recruiting is a strange game indeed.
BTW, Tennessee still believes (and I'm going to trust this here today) that if Lanier indeed makes to campus, they're going to land him and he's ultimately going to make it here.
