Five-star Anfernee Simons sets first visit date

The recruitment of five-star guard Anfernee Simons has remained on the back burner for the past few months after backing off of his commitment to Louisville upon the FBI sting that saw four high-major assistant coaches arrested, to go along with the firing of Rick Pitino.

In November, Simons spoke in-depth about the idea of jumping straight to the NBA following in the footsteps of 2016 NBA lottery pick Thon Maker. While things remains unsettled for his immediate future, what isn’t is where his first official visit will be taken.

On Saturday, January 6, Simons will make his first of five official visits to the University of Tennessee, he told Rivals. The five-star guard will be on hand when John Calipari and his Kentucky Wildcats come to town. Simons discussed his feelings about the program earlier in the year. “It is just a good program and coming up,” he said. “Rick Barnes has coached a lot of good guards and gotten them to the league. He said that I could come up and make the program go higher.”

No other visits are scheduled for the time being as Florida, UCLA, South Carolina and NC State are among the others most involved.

A commitment is not expected until the spring as the opportunity to jump directly into the NBA ranks and which college best suits his style of play remains at hand.