After a whirlwind of a week, former VCU point guard Terrence Hill Jr. has officially signed with the University of Tennessee. The Volunteers were hot in pursuit of Hill from the start, coming off of his 34-point outing against North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee survived an early visit to Kansas, getting him on campus in the middle of last week. On Sunday, the deal was done. Hill, although not as pure of a point guard as those before him in Knoxville, will fill the shoes of Ja’Kobi Gillespie.
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“Terrence comes from a great family and we are pleased to welcome them all to the Tennessee basketball program. He is a focused, mature and committed person who possesses clear leadership qualities,” Rick Barnes said via official release on Monday.
Hill is coming off of his sophomore season at VCU, where he averaged 15 points per game. The 6-3, 180 pound guard earned first-team All-A-10 honors after developing into a go-to scorer for the Rams last season. Hill shot 46.6 percent from the floor and 37 percent from three-point range.
Hill was a consensus top 25 overall player in the transfer portal.
“We are bringing Terrence here to make an immediate, significant impact and we feel great about his ability to do so,” Barnes said. “He is a dynamic player with speed, quickness, a strong basketball IQ and extreme confidence. Terrence can separate off the bounce and can put the ball in the basket from all three levels. He will mesh well with the way we run our offense.”
Hill joins Dai Dai Ames, Tyler Lundblade and Troy Henderson in the Tennessee backcourt. The Volunteers will also bring in 3-star point guard Marquis Clark, along with two 4-star wings — Manny Green and Ralph Scott. Tennessee has also added Notre Dame star forward Jalen Haralson and Loyola-Chicago rim protector Miles Rubin.
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The Volunteers remain in pursuit of Wake Forest guard Juke Harris and await an official NBA decision from Nate Ament. Both of those situations feel like they need to be resolved before Tennessee makes anymore decisions, although the need for frontcourt depth remains obvious.
