This week is starting out on a high note for the basketball Vols in terms of recruiting. Not only are Tennessee’s coaches visiting a five-star center in the 2019 class on Monday, but head coach Rick Barnes will be visiting a talented shooting guard in the class as well.
Dekeyvan Tandy, who goes by the nickname “KyKy,” tweeted out on Sunday that he would be getting an in-home visit from Tennessee on Monday.
Home visit with Tennessee tomorrow ?
— Dekeyvan Tandy (@TandyDekeyvan) April 15, 2018
Then, Chris Jung confirmed that Rick Barnes would be the one paying a visit to Tandy on Monday. Tandy will also be hosting Oklahoma and Cincinnati later this week.
Heard from UHA 2019 star recruit KyKy Tandy (@TandyDekeyvan) a little while ago. The young man has a busy recruiting week ahead, including big-time home visits on the slate:
Monday: Tennessee (Rick Barnes)
Tuesday: Oklahoma (Chris Crutchfield)
Wednesday: Cincinnati (Mick Cronin)— Chris Jung (@iamchrisjung) April 16, 2018
Tandy is rated as just a three-star by the 247Sports Composite rankings, but he’s right on the borderline between three and four-star status. Those rankings have him as the No. 150 overall player and No. 27 shooting guard in the 2019 class. He’s also the No. 2 player in the state of Kentucky by those metrics.
Right now, Tandy holds offers from Cincinnati, Florida, Oklahoma, Kansas State, and others. In-state powers Kentucky and Louisville have expressed interest in him, but they have yet to offer him. Tandy unofficially visited the Wildcats on February 24th, and Kentucky head coach John Calipari visited Tandy back on March 5th. He’s also unofficially visited Louisville twice and was visited by the Cardinals back in September of 2016.
Though he’s just a high three-star, Tandy’s highlight film shows off athleticism and play-making ability common in players you usually find in the top-100 overall players in any given class. He’s an offensive force and has superb ball-handling skills to go along with his extensive offensive game. He makes several behind the back passes, dunks, and eye-catching plays, and he makes them look easy. He has a smooth jumper and can score in traffic too. There’s not much of his defense on film, but what little there is shows a pesky defender who can play man-to-man defense well.
Tandy averaged 31.1 points per game as a junior this past season, and he likes what Rick Barnes does for guards at the collegiate level. He told Jacob Polacheck of Zagsblog that one of the biggest appeals to him about Tennessee is how Barnes coaches point guards.
“Rick Barnes is a point guard coach,” Tandy said in the interview. “I want to go to a program where the coach will teach me the game and how to be a point guard. Tennessee is a good program and somewhere that I’d like to go to.”
He’s listed in recruiting services as a shooting guard, but Tandy plays more like a combo guard. And at 6-foot-2, he’s likely a little too short to play shooting guard consistently in college.
The Vols only have one player committed in their 2019 class currently, and that’s three-star small forward Davonte Gaines. Expect Tennessee to go after several guards in their 2019 class.
