If a program has an opportunity to sign a top 25 rated player, it would insane not to do so.
If Tobias Harris is deemed ready for the NBA and his family is fine with the projected draft slot, more power to him. I think that he was a little gimped up this season with a bad ankle but man the kid has skills.
Scotty Hopson was around the #9 rated kid coming out of high school. He appears to not be ready for the NBA. May never be, who knows. But if he and his family hears what they believe to be good information from the NBA evaluation then more power to him. I do think that with his quickness and length that Coach Martin is just the guy to teach and force him to really learn to play defense if he chooses to stay. That would make him much more attractive to a pro team even if it is not the NBA.
I do think that for the most part that UT will attract mostly kids that need to be here 3 years or so, at least in the beginning. Coach Martin now has a better product to sell at UT than in his previous stop. People are all different so he may make connections with families and kids that Pearl did not, and vice versa.
I do think that he needs to get into the AAU process very quickly and sadly that is a quagmire. For some who have criticized Pearl for having so much time invested with the big time Georgia AAU team.....it is pretty much the foot in the door to getting a pipeline of players. Many of the individual high school coaches have had to take a back seat in the recruiting process.