It’s another big recruiting weekend for Tennessee, though not quite as star studded as it looked a couple of weeks ago.
Tennessee is set to host five-star forward
Nate Ament this weekend, a highly versatile prospect from Manassas, Va.
Five-star wing
Brayden Burries, from California, had earlier been scheduled as an official visitor but that’s no longer happening.
That means all the focus for the staff this weekend will be on Ament, a prospect that Tennessee has coveted since the end of the 2023 summer cycle.
Rick Barnes has been in to see Ament multiple times this fall and Tennessee is definitely putting on the full court press here.
Like fellow five-star Caleb Wilson though, this looks like a recruitment the Vols are going to have to wait out. Ament has been pretty emphatic for some time now that he intends to wait and commit some time after the New Year in 2025.
He has said repeatedly that he wants to watch some of the season play out to further judge the programs recruiting him.
Ament took an official visit to Louisville this past weekend and previously visited Texas this fall. He has a visit on the books way in the future to Kansas State in February.
He has seen Duke multiple times unofficially and the Blue Devils are heavily involved. Kansas, Arkansas and Notre Dame are other programs frequently mentioned with Ament.
Ament is one of three five-star prospects along with Wilson and
Chris Cenac that Tennessee remains heavily involved with late in the cycle.
As noted above, Wilson and Ament apparently will sign late.
There has also been some (uncomfirmed) chatter around Cenac that he may sign late as well, but that one seems more up in the air. There’s also some rumblings out there according to On3 national analyst Jamie Shaw that Tennessee is making a push with Cenac to get into a group of finalists that has thought to consist of just LSU and Kentucky. We have also heard some buzz that Houston shouldn’t be dismissed in this one.
Cenac attends Link Academy in Missouri but is originally from New Orleans. The feeling, not surprisingly, is that LSU will push hard to get him to sign in November.
The Vols got some good news on the
Isaiah Denis front this week. The four-star point guard from Charlotte elected to cancel an official visit to Kansas that was planned for this weekend.
Kansas had apparently cooled on Denis coming out of the summer, but tried to circle back late and secure a visit. Initially the Jayhawks got his attention, but apparently after some reflection he opted to stick with the group of schools that had stayed on him consistently.
Tennessee is definitely one of those schools and as a result of his Kansas decision, the Vols got the last visit last week.
That doesn’t guarantee anything, but it is a nice spot to be in.
With Kansas out it’s down to UNC and the Vols in our minds, but don’t discount Wake Forest. Denis also visited Ohio State and Miami.
UNC recently took a commitment from four-star point guard Derek Dixon, but the Tar Heels presumably are still recruiting Denis and he is reportedly still a ‘take’ for them from what we’re hearing. Anytime that’s the case with a North Carolina prospect you keep a wary eye on it.