At the end of April, Richmond grad transfer guard Khwan Fore announced that he would be joining Tennessee for his final year of eligibility for the upcoming 2018-19 basketball season. Now, however, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
According to Ellie Lieberman of MidMajorMadness.com, Fore told her he’s reopening his recruitment and won’t be transferring to Tennessee after all.
Richmond transfer Khwan Fore (@khwanfore_said) planned to transfer to Tennessee in the fall. He told me today he is reopening his recruitment. He averaged 11 ppg, 3.2 rpg and 2.7 apg last year.
— Ellie Lieberman (@ellieliebs) May 26, 2018
Fore was Tennessee’s lone 2018 commitment thus far, and the Vols now have two scholarships left to use before the start of the 2018-19 season with Fore’s departure. No reason has yet been given as to why Fore is backing out of his commitment to Tennessee, so it’s unclear if it’s an issue pertaining to UT or something on Fore’s side of things.
Fore averaged 11 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.7 assists while shooting 48 percent from the field this past season for the Spiders. In his 98-game career at Richmond, Fore averaged 9.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 50 percent from the floor.
With his departure, Tennessee has a hole in their guard rotation. Fore was likely to serve the same role as grad transfer James Daniel III did this past season, though Fore wasn’t as prolific of a scorer as Daniel but did drive to the basket with more regularity than any of UT’s guards and was a great perimeter defender. Without his addition to the roster, Tennessee will rely on a rotation of Jordan Bone, Lamonte Turner, and Jordan Bowden at the two guard positions. Jalen Johnson could fill that role as the fourth guard, but that would assume he takes some big steps forward this offseason. Johnson only appeared in 13 games and averaged 5.1 minutes per game this past season.
As mentioned above, Tennessee does have two scholarships available for the 2018 recruiting cycle. Their top target in the class, four-star center D.J. Burns, recently reclassified from the 2019 class to the 2018 class and is expected to make his college announcement soon. He’s expected to be choosing between the Vols and South Carolina.
Another option to look at is five-star guard Jalen Lecque. There’s been talk of Lecque also reclassifying from the 2019 class to the 2018 class, but he hasn’t made his decision yet. If he reclassifies, the Vols figure to be big players for him as well.
We will keep you posted as any new information becomes available.
