6'3", 180 pound, combo guard Anthony Harris committed to Virginia Tech on Tuesday afternoon.
The wait is over #BLESSED pic.twitter.com/DcSGLDUq8A— ️Ant_harris#3™ (@MANZANT3) October 2, 2018
Harris, out of Fairfax, is ranked the 3rd best player in the state of Virginia. He's ranked as the 64th best player by the 247 composite nationally for the the 2019 class.
Harris chose the Hokies over the rest of his top-4 of Miami, Wake Forest, and UCONN. Harris had just gone on an additional official visit to Duke.
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FAM! Big one in the boat!
Bede, NAW, Harris
That could be fun for a couple years.
Just wish we could get a couple
morebigsI think Nolley will be a stud also
Good call, forgot about him.
But yeah, still need some bigs. Have to be able to have some height in this league
I'm telling you, every time I see an Alum post, I loose a portion of my soul.
So ... are you changing your thoughts about Buzz having one foot out the door now?
Thanks, Henry!
+1 a Ric Flair gif will never not get a leg from me.
I firmly believe that one of the most important things that go with this commitment is that Christian Webster was his primary recruiter for a couple reasons:
Tech hasn't had a lot of success in the private DMV schools, such as Episcopal or Paul VI in basketball or football. Partially because alot of these players seek out elite academics along with a D1 program. This is especially important in BBall because you have good schools like Duke, Xavier, Purdue, Vanderbilt, etc being big time programs with a history of success. So unless a kid has their mind set on Kentucky or Kansas then name brand academics matter alot. Christian Webster being relatively young and coming from Harvard I think allows Tech to have some rep in that field and talk the talk that some kids, coaches and parents may care about on the academic side. And since he's still a new coach it's good to see him proving himself and getting big recruits for his ability to reference when talking to other elite players.
I don't know what I can do to productively continue this thread, because I'm not quite as plugged into basketball, but I thought I'd let you know that I read this and think it is awesome.
I'm having a hard time with the thought that we needed an assistant coach to relay to recruits that we care about academics.
It has nothing to do with us caring about academics as a program. Regardless of how we feel about our education at Tech, outside of the mid-atlantic, engineering circles or companies/people that have had some specific experience with tech alums, Tech isn't particularly known as an elite academic institution. Kids looking at highly regarded academic schools might not see us at the same level as a Stanford or Duke as an institution. So as a complete package it's important to communicate with them that a degree from Tech can be just as valuable and will be challenged intellectually. For simplicity's sake Christian Webster can say "Hey, I went to Harvard and trust me Tech academics are no joke." It's part of the reason Woodberry Forest seems like they have a pipeline at UVA recently, they easily fit the academic side. So again unless the kid is going to Clemson(F), Penn State(F), Alabama(F), Kentucky(BB) or Syracuse(BB) type school then academic prestige tends to matter more than with other kids. We'll never compete with a kid that wants Stanford on the academic side, but the kids that are looking at Michigan(F) or Purdue(BB) who push their mix of academic level and program success is where it can make a difference.
The reality with private schools is what it is even if you don't believe it and to just to make the point visually, lets looks at some of the most recent local private schools (Paul Vi, Woodberry Forest, Episcopal etc (Not including Oak Hill for obvious reasons)) recruits. Not saying all these kids would have fit skillswise at tech but it becomes pretty apparent what they're going for in addition to a competitive sports program:
Salim Turner-Muhammad Episcopal (Alexandria, VA) 2019 4-star DB
Commited to Stanford
Litchfield Ajavon Episcopal (Alexandria, VA) 2019 3-star DB
Committed to Notre Dame
Tola Banjoko Episcopal (Alexandria, VA) 2018 3-star DT
Committed to Princeton
Jaelin Llewellyn Virginia Episcopal School 2018 4-star PG
Committed to Princeton
Brandon Slater Paul VI (Fairfax, VA) 2017 4-star SF
Committed to Villanova
Ejike Obinna Virginia Academy (Ashburn, VA) 2017 3-star C
Committed to Vanderbilt
Luiji Vilain Episcopal (Alexandria, VA) 2017 4-star DE
Committed to Michigan
Patrice Rene Episcopal (Alexandria, VA) 2016 3-star DB
Committed to UNC
Joe Goff Episcopal (Alexandria, VA) 2016 3-star DT
Committed to Navy
Jesse Meyler Episcopal (Alexandria, VA) 2016 3-star OT
Committed to Northwestern
Myles Hudzick Bishop O' Connell (Arlington, VA) 2016 3-star DB
Committed to Duke
Clark Yarbrough Woodberry Forest 2016 4-star
Committed to Stanford
Scott Bracey Benedictine (Richmond, VA) 2016 4-star
Committed to Duke
Donaven Tennyson Benedictine (Richmond, VA) 2016 3-star
Committed to Vanderbilt
Was the UNC commit on your list for dramatic irony?
Just makin sure you're paying attention lol
HUGE pickup! Paul the VI is known for producing excellent guards. Kid is going to be special.
This is pretty huge for Buzz/Tech. He's not really a point guard, but a pretty damn good combo guard and (braces for a BUZZword) pretty gritty. After the Langley twins committed to UNCG, it also goes to show that sometimes we just need to trust the evaluation process all the way through.
We'll have to keep an eye out to make sure that while staying gritty, he also makes sure to #getBETTER
Did someone say Gritty?
2-0 against Duke in the last week
I don't think he actually had an offer from Duke.
FWIW, he did take an official there last week, so there was certainly interest.
I love it. Has the potential to be a 3-4 year Seth Allen style player
J-Rob PVI successor
All Hail PVI!! Cool to see my alma matter on here. Last Panther at Tech was Erick Green. Hopefully Harris takes off before his senior year at Tech
While technically J-Rob isn't a PVI alum, he played there up until his senior year. So you can claim him too. (aside Go Atoms, and it's too bad PVI is abandoning the Old Fairfax HS campus)
Lot of things behind that move but I think in the long run its nothing but positive in terms of the student experience. The current campus is limited by all the development around it and also not as centrally located in terms of student population anymore. Not that the Loudoun campus will be more centrally located but in terms of where the school is drawing paying students from, it is much closer located and likely increases the number of students coming from Loudoun. Its very similar to why Loudoun County also decided to slowly phase out sending kids to Thomas Jefferson in lieu of building the Academies of Loudoun which opened this year. I wouldnt be surprised to see Paul VI reach some kind of agreement that would allow some of their student population to also attend the Academies, giving them access to one of a kind labs and other learning opportunities that arent found in any other school in the country. Having state of the art facilities will only make them more attractive to bringing in sports talent. I expect that this move may improve the talent they recruit in sports outside of basketball based on the designs I have seen of their athletic endeavors on the new campus.
Am I the only person who read this and thought he misspelled "VPI"?
#PVI2VPI
This is a huge get for a variety of reasons, but for me I love this because it's very likely the first domino to fall. Elite talent wants to play with elite talent. Targets like Patrick Williams and Qudus Wahab, both players only have a few crystal balls between them and it seems like their recruitment is still way up in the air, have to take notice of this. It also helps that Williams is from Charlotte and Wahab from Ashburn.
Believe the hype! Buzzketball is about to take it to the next level!
Wow, what a great commitment. Hopefully some other elite talent commits for 2019 very soon.
Big time get can't wait to see him on the court hopefully this gets the ball rolling for more big time players to come to Blacksburg!
#alltheguards
Me watching that video:
That's awesome! Let's just hope he's AT LEAST 800% committed.