Quick Reaction: 4-star SF Terrence Shannon Commits to Texas Tech

Tell if you’ve heard this one recently: The Texas Tech Basketball team landed a Top 100 recruit on Monday. The Red Raiders added to their already stellar class with the commitment Terrence Shannon, a 4-star forward out of Chicago. This credit likely goes to Glynn Cyprein, who visited Shannon often in Florida.

Before we get into his actual recruitment, here are his measurables and recruiting info:

Terrence Shannon Jr – Small Forward (Lincoln Park HS, Chicago, Ill)

Height Weight
6’6″ 185 lbs

Ratings: 90 by 247sports (116th overall, 30th SF) / 83 by ESPN (90th overall, 16th SF) / 4-star by Rivals (57th overall, 14th SF) / 96.72 by 247composite (84th overall, 21st SF)

Interest: Texas Tech (Warm), Illinois (Warm), DePaul (Warm), 14 others

Near the end of summer last year, Shannon named a Top 4 of DePaul, Florida State, Illinois and Maryland. He had visited DePaul just a few days prior, and then committed there just a short while after that. That being said, Shannon decommitted just a week later. Usually this happens because a recruit feels like he committed too early in the process.

That’s around the time when Texas Tech started getting involved. Two days after his decommitment, he received an offer from the Red Raiders. Shortly after that, he visited Lubbock for the weekend of the Houston football game. After that, he visited Illinois and Georgetown.

When the basketball season started, he named a Top 6 of DePaul, Florida State, Georgetown, Illinois, North Carolina and Texas Tech, However, unlike the recruitment of Jahmius Ramsey, Kevin McCullar and Khavon Moore, we wasn’t sure what was up with Shannon for a while.

During that time, he rose from a relatively unknown recruit to a Top 100 player by basically every service. We finally got an update in February, where we learned that Coach Cyprien was visiting Shannon in Florida, Shortly after that we learned that Shannon visited Texas Tech a second time during the Baylor game. Usually when an out of state player visits you multiple times, it’s a good sign.

Snaps (on Shapchat) pictured Shannon cheering on the Red Raiders, recruiting experts were hinting that Shannon was leaning towards the Red Raiders, and when he announced last week that he would be committing today, it seemed like it was only a matter a time before he committed to the school in Lubbock.

Below are a couple highlight tapes that I feel best show of Shannon’s play making ability. The first shows more of his transition game and how he attack the basket, while the second showcases more his athletic ability and overall game.

The first thing that stands out here is the athleticism of Shannon. That seems to be a trend among most of Chris Beard’s commitments. He looks to run the floor well and uses a variety of moves to get to the rim, including a funny looking eurostep and spin moves. Another thing I noticed that may not be seen is that as soon as the ball goes in, he hustles back on defense. Beard is not going to like guys who jog back.

We also saw a good look at what Shannon’s shot looks like. It looks a tad different than a normal jump shot, but Zhaire Smith and Jarrett Culver had strange looking shots at first too. But what’s important is that they seem to go in without rattling around of anything like that, or at least on the video shown. He also had a couple nice passes that show his ability to find the open man, even when driving.

Finally, we saw the plays Shannon can make around the rim. There were several times where he was able to break away free from the defenders and throw it down. Another time he dunked it one handed in traffic. He also had a huge block where the player thought he was going to get an easy basket before Shannon blocked it into the field of play.

The 2019 recruiting class currently sits at six members, including Kevin McCullar and Andrei Savrasov who are already on campus. They are now the 14th ranked class overall according to 247sports, which is good for second in the Big 12 just narrowly behind Texas.

As far as scholarship go, that is all the open scholarships that Texas Tech has as of right now. In fact, they won’t have one available until 2021. That being said, they may get some open soon. Jarrett Culver is likely going pro after the season, so that opens up a scholarship for this class. Also if a transfer happens, which wouldn’t surprise me given that some scholarship players didn’t get much playing time last year.

I bet that with Beard uses another scholarship (or two) this class, it will be on a grad transfer. The Red Raiders are once again losing half of their roster and adding a senior with experience wouldn’t hurt. But we likely won’t know until April when players announce they are transferring. We didn’t know about Mooney or Owens until after the season ended.

For the 2020 class, we’re likely looking at one scholarship for sure. But with underclassmen going pro and players transferring the past couple years, it would not surprise me if more opened up. The big fish for the Red Raiders to land next year is the teammate of Jahmius Ramsey at Duncanville, Micah Peavy.

If I had to guess, Texas Tech is in the lead for Peavy right now, but it’s still a long way til he can sign. Peavy named a Top 5 of Houston, LSU, Michigan, TCU and Texas Tech, but two of those schools have been in trouble the past couple weeks. Other possible prospects include Che Evans, Greg Brown, and Demarr Langford among others.

Texas Tech Basketball Commits

Position Player Ht/Wt School/Hometown Composite Commitment
Guard Kevin McCullar 6-5/180 Wagner
(San Antonio, TX)
90.63 July 5, 2018
Forward Khalid Thomas 6-9/210 College of Southern Idaho
(Twin Falls, ID)
90.00 October 2, 2018
Center Russel Tchewa 7-0/255 Putnam Science Academy
(Putnam, CT)
86.28 October 11, 2018
Guard Jahmius Ramsey 6-4/190 Duncanville
(Duncanville, TX)
98.80 November 8, 2018
Forward Andrei Savrasov 6-9/215 Orenberg, Russia N/R January 28, 2019
Forward Terence Shannon 6-6/185 IMG Academy
(Bradenton, FL)
96.72 March 11, 2019
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