Four-star BJ Edwards has revealed his college destination, and the Knoxville Catholic product won’t have to travel very far for practice after the point guard officially announced his commitment to the Tennessee basketball team Thursday afternoon.
Edwards, the fourth-highest ranked basketball player in the state of Tennessee, will be coach Rick Barnes’ first commitment to the 2022 class.
The highly talented guard chose Tennessee over five other schools on Thursday. The Vols beat out Florida, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Georgia, and Virginia Tech in the race to get the sought-after guard.
“I feel like when I went to Wake Forest and when I went to Florida they just had film of their own guys,” Edwards said in an interview with Rocky Top Insider. “They didn’t put me up on the screen. But at Tennessee, they had my highlights and [showed me] how I fit in with their own offense.”
After Barnes posted the SEC’s No. 1 recruiting class in 2021, his technique has begun to prove worthy once again. The Vols have landed a key piece to the roster that will surely attract the attention of other talented players as well.
Edwards is an aggressive point guard who has no fear when taking the ball to the hoop. Combined with good outside shooting and a strong defensive presence, Edwards will surely play a key role in the future offenses of Tennessee basketball.
During his official visit to Tennessee at the beginning of the week, coach Barnes made sure Edwards knew that, too.
“Me and coach Barnes sat down for about an hour,” Edwards said to Rocky Top Insider. “What surprised me was how he was showing film of the previous point guards, like Jordan Bone and Lamonte Turner, and showing how they ran their plays… It seemed perfect to me.”
Edwards shined during the 2020-2021 Knoxville Catholic basketball season. He averaged 19.9 points per game, seven rebounds per game, and 5.1 assists per game, according to MaxPreps.
While on his official visit, Edwards was shown comparisons of his own AAU and high school tape to the great Volunteers of old. Now that he has officially announced his commitment to Tennessee, those comparisons have become one step closer to reality.
