Tennessee’s chances of landing the star from Wake Forest, Juke Harris, may have just gone up quite a bit with the recent development in Chapel Hill. While the Harris race is not over, one of the main contenders is probably out of the question now.
Rick Barnes retools Vols roster with emphasis on elite shooting and scoring
The new head coach of North Carolina, Mike Malone, just picked up two very good commitments today. North Carolina added Terrence Brown from Utah, a player who averaged 19.9 points per game last season and has one more year of eligibility. The Tar Heels also added wing Matt Able from their rival NC State. Able is a former Five-star recruit with three years of eligibility remaining. He averaged right around nine points per game last season in the ACC.
Given the fact that North Carolina just added two very good prospects to their roster, they likely are out of the Juke Harris sweepstakes. And to be fair, North Carolina does have a big budget, but after adding Brown and Abel, I’m not sure how much more money they can spend on ball handlers.
Tennessee vs. Michigan for Juke Harris
On the other hand, Michigan still has a lot of money to spend as the only player they’ve landed out of the portal so far is former Vol big man JP Estrella. Michigan has been linked heavily to Center, Moustapha Thiam, who the Vols were also linked with, but they still have a ton of money to spend and will be willing to wait out Harris.
Dusty May is a really good coach, and there’s a lot to like about the Michigan program, but if Tennessee can put together a financial offer very similar to Michigan’s, I see no reason why they shouldn’t be able to land him. Barnes has a long-standing relationship with Harris going back to high school, and that should pay real dividends here. This race is far from over, but it is nice knowing that North Carolina is pretty much out of it. Barnes needs to get revenge on May now for the Elite Eight game a few weeks ago.
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