Why Does UT Not Recruit Locally?

[billiard13]

Has any of the ACC schools offered him? I find it hard to beelieve that if the ACC is offering him then he is not good enough to play in the SEC.

 

No, his only offers have been Charleston, Charlotte, Richmond, Appalachian St. UT Chattanooga and the largest school being Miami of FL according to both Scout.com and Unapproved Website

[catuballer]

Has any of the ACC schools offered him? I find it hard to beelieve that if the ACC is offering him then he is not good enough to play in the SEC.

You have to remember that college coaches see beyond this year. They look at potential. Wiggins is not ready to play in the SEC, but I think he can. He would be an ideal player to recruit in the SEC or any major conference with the intention of redshirting. Put some muscle on him and a year of playing against top competition in practice and he will be very good. Don't be surprised if he signs with a big school - to find out later he sits out his first season.

[barb]

You have to remember that college coaches see beyond this year. They look at potential. Wiggins is not ready to play in the SEC, but I think he can. He would be an ideal player to recruit in the SEC or any major conference with the intention of redshirting. Put some muscle on him and a year of playing against top competition in practice and he will be very good. Don't be surprised if he signs with a big school - to find out later he sits out his first season.

Wiggins will be a spring signee so there is plenty of time for scouting and offers. Since he was injured over part of the summer, its probably wise to wait til then.

[cobrafan90]

Jajuan Smith was once considered an overrated recruit for UT. You must be crazy to think Wiggins isn't D1 material. At his size he can get whatever shot he wants.................

 

Doubters said the same for Barry Stewart from Shelbyville. He almost signed with austin peay. Now he is seeing regular minutes at Mississippi State as a TRUE freshman!

[Bama On The Wall]

No, his only offers have been Charleston, Charlotte, Richmond, Appalachian St. UT Chattanooga and the largest school being Miami of FL according to both Scout.com and Unapproved Website

From what i have heard of this kid he seems to be a division 11 type of player

[mtnman]

UT will recruit locally if the kids good enough. Do you think they sit in their office and say hey this kid is a DI kid but we don't want him because he went to school in Knoxville.

[littlerock]

First of all, Pearl hasn't signed anybody from Memphis. Chism is from Jackson, and he missed on Thaddeus Young and Maurice Miller.

 

As for local guys, if Pearl recruited exclusively in East Tennessee, Tennessee couldn't compete in the SEC. There are good players to come out of ET, but not as many as in other parts of the state. Lee Humphrey and Jajuan Smith are ET guys, and they are both very good SEC players. Wiggins is an SEC player. His stock was rising this spring before he got hurt. Terrance Oglesby signed with Clemson and Omar Wattad is a Georgetown committment. Tony White is playing a lot of minutes at College of Charleston.

 

But most, if not all, the good players in ET are small college type guys. With about 3 or 4 scholarships per year, Pearl has to be selective about who to offer. I think his idea of building the walk-on program using ET guys is a pretty good one.

 

Knoxville/East Tennessee is not an area that he can mine from on a yearly basis. That's odd, because other cities of similar size - Little Rock, Tulsa, Virginia Beach, have much better talent. But there are good players that come along.

[therickbol]

Pearl has 1 scholarship for '08 that is going towards a SF (Wiggins destination in college). Pearl and his staff have contacted him and evaluated him. But, they have a number of other SF's that are better that they are going after and they are higher priorities because they are better recruits. Do you want Pearl to sign guys just because they are from east tn or do you want him to sign the best possible players? I have seen Wiggins play and he is not an SEC player right now, but he does have some potential if he puts in enough hard work. On down the road I guarantee you Pearl will recruit every player in the state very aggresively who he deems to be a difference maker in the SEC. He is already heavily involved in recruiting Leslie McDonald from Memphis. He will be a stud on down the road.

 

Dont forget that every coach in the SEC has seen Wiggins play and none of them have offered him a scholly. I know many posters on coacht want to assume they have a great depth of basketball knowledge but are you nieve enough to think you have a better evaluation of Wiggins than every SEC coach does?

[gomerpyle]

The prime evaluation time is during spring and summer in between a player's junior and senior year of high school. Wiggins was injured during much of this time, so most coaches couldn't evaluate him. Most college coaches don't take risks, and for an SEC school to offer him without really seeing what he can do would have been a risk. In rare cases, it can benefit a player to wait.

[Bama On The Wall]

Personally I wouldnt wanna recruit in Tennessee unless the player that i was recruiting was pretty awesome cuz Pearl is a great recruiter and he has a great reputation cause of his previous job so he can recruit out of state blue chip players from states like florida or texas or mostly the big ten area so why bother with Tennessee athletes cuz tennessee isnt a basketball state more football

[cherokee165]

One of the only good local recruits tennessee has is jajuan smith who came from my mcminn county high school.Nobody thought he would do anything but if u saw him at mcminn then you knew he would find a way to be somethin special!

[Rob_M]

Thadeus Young and Mo Miller were both set at getting out of the state of Tennessee. There was nothing that Bruce Pearl could have done to keep those guys in state. Coach Pearl is making serious in roads in Memphis and will definitely be a factor here in the near future. Elliot Williams at Memphis St George's HS is a player that Pearl could end up getting. He is only a JR and is moving up all the recruiting rankings.

 

Also in the class of 08 is a SF at Craigmont, HS in Memphis. He is scoring a ton of points this year. I am sure that the coaching staff at Tennessee will be involved with him before it is all said and done as well.