Harris Makes Decision After Surprise UT Visit

Tobias Harris has made his college decision and will announce it at 6 p.m. Thursday on ESPNU.

“The decision has been made at 11:56 p.m. [Wednesday],” Torrel Harris wrote in a text. “The Tobias college world tour has ended. We appreciate all the great coaches who recruited Tobias.”

The 6-foot-8 Harris, a senior at Dix Hills (N.Y.) Half Hollow Hills West, will announce for one of the following schools: Syracuse, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisville, West Virginia, Maryland and Georgia Tech.

Harris and his father made a surprise stop at Tennessee on Tuesday night on their way back from the Georgia Tech visit.

“We made an unexpected visit to watch the game and congratulated the coach [Bruce Pearl] for his 100th win in the SEC and then we left,” Torrel said.

Tennessee routed UNC Asheville 124-49 for Pearl’s 100th win at the school. He became the second-fastest coach in school history to reach that mark.

Harris visited Maryland over the weekend and Georgia Tech from Sunday-Tuesday and was supposed to wrap things up there. Instead, he went back for another look at Tennessee. He had already taken his official there.

Combine this with the fact that Bishop Loughlin forward  JayVaughn Pinkston opted Wednesday to hold off on announcing — presumably for Tennessee — and it sure makes for some interesting developments.

Kimani Young of New Heights told me Pinkston simply wasn’t “100 percent” certain about his college choice and opted to wait. Makes sense.

At any rate, after seven visits Harris has decided based on a slew of factors his father mentioned:

A. Strong academics in my major (Entrepreneur/Sports Management)

B. The “feel” for the school, teammates, coaches

C. Winning program

D. Trust with coaches

E. Family within the team

F. Unselfishness of team players

G. Players’ coach

H. Program that Tobias wants to take to the next level

I. Top basketball schedule in the country

J. A team that will allow Tobias to be a point forward and plays an uptempo NBA style

K. School that’s well respected.

L. School that Tobias can make an immediate impact at

M. Coaches that can help push Tobias to improve his overall basketball game for the NBA

N. School that can help Tobias improve his defense for the next level.

O. Good student body

P. Good academic advisors

Stay tuned…

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