I don’t believe it comes as a huge surprise to anyone but the VolNation can breathe a bit easier as Tyler Smith has officially announced that he will return to Tennessee for his junior season.
From Bruce Pearl:
“Tyler came back for a reason,” said Pearl. “A lot of why he came back was because of what he wanted to do individually but also because of what he wanted the team to do. He will be the leader of our team now. This is going to be his team. Chris Lofton was inspirational to us because of how he trained so hard. Tyler will be an inspiration to us because of how hard he works and the type of person he is.”
“I told Tyler, ‘Tyler, we are going to be good without you. Don’t do this for us,”‘ Pearl said. But the coach conceded, “Can we be championship-good without Tyler? It would be more difficult.”
Smith had hoped to be a mid-high first round pick but expert projections placed him as a likely second round selection. With at least 38 underclassman declaring for the NBA draft, everyone involved believes that Tyler made the right decision to return to Tennessee.
Tyler’s analysis on what he needs to do to get better:
“Just being able to work on my game all summer and through the schedule that we have, I think it would benefit me more … to improve something I really don’t have in my game yet,” Smith said.
“I need to be more consistent with my jump shot, ball handling. There are a lot of areas I need to get better in. Even attacking the rim — even though I am good, I need to get better.”
This news comes one day after Scotty Hopson signed his letter of intent to play for Tennessee. Smith specifically mentioned the addition of Hopson in his press conference.
Discuss Tyler Smith’s announcement in our Vols Forum. In that thread, rexvol linked a great post from a Kentucky message board that assesses the Vols talent level compared to the rest of the SEC. The real question, however, is why does rex spend so much time on a Kentucky forum?