Which is a round-about way of saying that the Vols' shot at making some genuine noise in the Class of 2014 rides on whether or not they can close with Kevon Looney. The five-star forward was at Florida last weekend, will visit Duke next and is expected to be in Knoxville the weekend of Sept. 20-22. Michigan State also remains in the picture. Tennessee is expected to make an in-home visit with Looney next week.
Getting any kind of hard information on Looney's recruitment been hard to come by, to say the least, since the summer season ended. Allegedly that may be true for more than media just media types given that the word is that the family is only dealing with head coaches at this point when it comes to recruiting.
That won't do Tennessee's chances any harm as Cuonzo Martin has routinely, in the past, done much of the heavy lifting on the Vols' top targets, such as fielding and initiating contact with families. How accustomed the competition is to attending to such tasks is debatable. That detail might not push Tennessee over the top in a fight with some heavyweights, but Martin's personal touch along with some deep family ties to East Tennessee, have Tennessee deeply in the mix with nation's No. 13 ranked prospect.