Five-star goaltender Josiah James surprisingly picks Tennessee by giving Rick Barnes his biggest win in the hiring



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Josiah James, a five-star combo guard from Charleston, SC, verbally committed to Tennessee on Wednesday. The development was a surprise to recruiting analysts, almost all of whom were planning to stay in the state and finally sign a national letter of intent with Clemson.

In other words, it's still grief for Clemson.

Last year, surprisingly, Brad Brownell's Tigers lost staff star Zion Williamson to Duke. Now, they lost another star in the state, again surprisingly, this time to the Vols.

It is hard to exaggerate what it means for UT.

James is a 6-foot-6-inch playmaker who is ranked 14th in the 2019 class, according to 247Sports. That made him the top-rated candidate for the flights since Barnes replaced Donnie Tyndall in March 2015 – and that extends a series of positive things on the Barnes Tennessee watch.

His flights were selected 13th in the SEC's pre-season poll, but they exceeded other players' expectations, although they did not have a single place in the top 100 and tied for Auburn at top of the ranking. For this, Barnes has been named coach of the year by the SEC. Now, every important piece of this team is back. Therefore, Tennessee is ranked fourth in the Top 25 CBS Sports Preseason (and one).

James is the eighth of the 20 best prospects in the 2019 class to commit. The others are No. 7 Kahlil Whitney (Kentucky), No. 9 Tyrese Maxey (Kentucky), No. 12 Bryan Antoine (Villanova), Nico Mannion No. 13 (Arizona), No. 16 Isaiah Mobley (USC), No. . 17 Onyeka Okongwu (USC) and 19 Armando Bacot (North Carolina).

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