Tubby Smith is finally on board for the class of 2017.
Smith, who took over for Josh Pastner in April, got his first 2017 commitment from Jamal Johnson, a 6-4, 170-pound combo guard from Birmingham, Alabama.
“Jamal is a launching pad for the 2017 recruiting class,” said Jonah Jordan, who covers University of Memphis basketball recruiting for 247Sports.
Johnson, who’s the son of former University of Alabama basketball player Buck Johnson, who’s 20-year professional basketball career included six NBA seasons with the Houston Rockets and Washington Bullets, held 15 Division-I basketball scholarship offers, including Florida, Alabama and Auburn.
For Smith, the commitment of Johnson, who’s rated 91.08 and a three-star on 247Sports composite rankings, represents his highest rated recruit since White Station High School’s Andre Hollins committed to him at Minnesota in 2011.
Johnson is ranked the 154th prospect in the country for 2017, meaning that Smith has still not landed a top-100 recruit based on the 247Sports composite rankings since Royce White (No. 26) and Rodney Williams (No. 51) at Minnesota in 2009.
However, some sites are higher on Johnson than others. 247Sports, who publishes their own rankings as well as aggregating rankings from other sites for their composite list, ranks Johnson as a four-star, 84th best prospect in the country and the fifth best combo guard in America.
“The composite takes everybody’s rankings of a prospect and runs it through an algorithm,” Jordan said. “There’s usually a disparity between the 247Sports ranking and the composite rankings because 247 is constantly updated the independent rankings. I would lean towards the composite being more accurate, but not in this case.”
Rivals, another site which has been ranking high school prospects for well over a decade, also lists Johnson as a four-star prospect and ranks him as the 111th best prospect in the country.
As Johnson’s commitment relates to the rest of the Tigers roster, only Dedric Lawson, K.J. Lawson and Markel Crawford were ranked higher coming out of high school than Johnson.
“Expecting Tubby Smith to get high-level four- and five-stars recruits right away is unrealistic,” Jordan said. “This staff has to rebuild Memphis’ image, and they have to get better at recruiting themselves. If you look at who they were recruiting at Texas Tech, it was mostly two- and three-star guys. It’s going to take some time for them to start getting guys Memphis is used to getting in the past.”
Joe Esposito, who’s been with Smith since 2007 at Minnesota, was the primary recruiter for Johnson, and Jordan says that he’s been a valuable asset for Memphis basketball in his short time with the Tigers. “Joe Esposito has proven to be Memphis’ best recruiter by a longshot,” Jordan said. “He was the primary recruiter for Jamal Johnson, Keon Clergeot and Chad Rykhoek (a graduate transfer from Baylor). (Memphis assistants) Pooh Williamson and Saul Smith haven’t brought in anybody. Esposito has been the best asset to the Memphis basketball team this summer.
Memphis will need help in the backcourt for the 2017-18 season and Johnson provides that.
The Tigers will rely on Coppin State University graduate transfer Christian Kessee to man the point guard spot this season, but Kessee is a senior and will be gone by the time Johnson gets on campus, leaving a big hole at one of the guard spots.
The development of Jeremiah Martin, Craig Randall, both of whom will be juniors in 2017, and Clergeot, who will be a sophomore in 2017, will be crucial for the Tigers. Regardless, it is likely that Johnson will be the top rated prospect in the Tigers backcourt for 2017-18, so there is a clear path to early playing time for the Birmingham native. “I really do think there’s a chance Jamal will contribute right away,” Jordan said. “I could see him making an impact his freshman year.”
Johnson is an intriguing prospect who’s improved in recent seasons offensively and has a relatively high ceiling on the defense end.
“He needs to work on his ball handling,” Jordan said. “He improved as a shooter. He has potential to be a good defender because he’s smart and has long arms, and since he is such a good defender in high school, that gives him potential at the Division-I level. I think he’s better than any of the other guard they have on the roster.”
Jordan also said that the Tigers are not done by any stretch in adding players to the 2017 class – as they could have to fill as many spots as five or six for next season.
“I would say they’re going to sign two or three freshmen and then the rest are going to be JUCOs and grad transfers,” Jordan said. A name he mentioned to be on the lookout for is David Nickelberry, a three-star small forward from Florida who’s taking his official visit to Memphis this weekend.
