Tennessee in the top six for 2019 power forward out of Germany

An interesting development came today on the basketball recruiting front as the Vols landed in the top six for Isaiah Ihnen — a 6-9, 190 pound power forward from Germany. Arizona State, TCU, Oregon, Minnesota and Texas also made the cut for Ihnen.

This news is interesting, considering Tennessee is currently full for next year. The Vols will fill their three open spots with five-star guard Josiah James, three-star forward Drew Pember and three-star small forward Davonte Gaines. Adding anything else to the 2019 class would mean someone would have to leave the program.

That’s entirely possible, of course. Forward Grant Williams has a decision to make on the NBA after the season. Point guard Jordan Bone has also been picking up traction on the NBA front. Transfer season could always shake things up as well.

As for Ihnen, he’s still unranked by 247 Sports. However, he’s received plenty of interest and offers to this point. Elsewhere the 2019 class, Tennessee has been active with 6-10, 270 pound center Jason Jitoboh, getting him on campus last weekend during the Kentucky game.

Jitoboh and Ihnen are options, but if Tennessee were to lose a veteran, look for them to be active on the grad-transfer market, as they were with James Daniel in 2017. They also pursued Khwan Fore last year, securing a commitment before Fore backed out. We could see a similar situation to make the numbers work this offseason, if necessary.