Rick Barnes Wants You: Ray Kasongo Commits To The Vols

A huge day for Coach Rick Barnes continued as Ray Kasongo announced Tuesday that he is choosing the Tennessee Volunteers over Mississippi State.

This marks the second commit for Coach Barnes’ staff, and the second commit today. The Vols landed point guard Lamonte’ Turner earlier today out of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

Kasongo comes out of College of Southern Idaho, where he registered 6 points and 4.9 rebounds a game. These numbers do not sound impressive, but Kasongo was a part of a near 12 man rotation at the community college where he played almost 16 minutes a game.

The former Oregon signee is a Canada native that attended Oak Hill Academy in Kentucky where he was considered a three-star prospect coming out of high school. Kasongo addresses another huge area of need for this Volunteer team.

With Tariq Ownes transferring to St. Johns, Tennessee was left with limited big bodies on the roster. Kasongo provides them with a 6’10 and 235 pound frame to add to the mix of developing big men Willie Carmichael and Jabari McGhee.

Kasongo could be expected to play some minutes right away off his defensive prowess alone, the forward averaged just over 2 blocks while playing less than 20 minutes a game. He will still need to develop his foot work and post game on the offensive side of things, but the recruit shows promise in that area.

Kasongo does a great job of getting up and down the court; his athleticism and size alone will get him a few points, and look for the big man to be catching a lot of alley-oops for the Vols in the next few seasons.

Turner and Kasongo come in as the third and fourth prospects in the 2015 class, along with three-star forward Admiral Schofield, and three-star guard Shembari Phillips.