Tennessee PG target Jalen Cone commits to Virginia Tech

Four-star point guard Jalen Cone announced his commitment to Virginia Tech this afternoon after reclassifying to the class of 2019 earlier in the week.

Cone made the announcement at Walkertown high school in North Carolina.

The 5-11 point guard is the 100th ranked player in the class of 2020, according to 247 Sports.

Cone emerged as an option to potentially help replace some vacated minutes if Jordan Bone stayed in the 2019 NBA Draft. Bone has until the end of may to make that final decision. Tennessee was one of the first few schools to offer reclassification to Cone, but others quickly followed.

Virginia Tech was a major player for Cone all along, but their hopes seemed to take a hit when Buzz Williams bolted for Texas A&M. However, new head coach Mike Young clearly did enough to get him back on board with the Hokies.

Tennessee is left with a depth problem in the backcourt, particularly at the point guard position — again, assuming Bone stays in the draft. Lamonte Turner will return while Tennessee will add five-star combo guard Josiah James into the point equation. Outside of that, the Vols have Jordan Bowden and Jalen Johnson in the rotation at guard.

Rick Barnes was able to add a big man earlier this week in Olivier Robinson-Nkamhoua, but he came up empty at guard today. Perhaps Bone returns, but it will be interesting to see what his backup plan is if he doesn’t.