Shaka Smart is entering his first season as the Texas basketball head coach and he is hard at work recruiting players for his 2016 class. With Jacob Young, India Pacers guard Joseph Young's brother, already committed Smart continues to try and add to the class and he has. Four-star center James Banks announced on Thursday morning that he will play his college basketball at Texas via his Twitter account.
Hook'Em Horns!! pic.twitter.com/cYBWQAjxH3
— ⬆️Next (@32jbanks) October 8, 2015
Banks is a 6 foot-11 center from Atlanta, Georgia that has really worked his way up the 2016 rankings over the past year with vast improvement. Banks ranks as the number 45 overall prospect and the ninth best center in the 2016 class, according to Scout.com.
Banks is known as a defense first guy as he has a chance to be dominant on that end with his tremendous ability to protect the rim but he does have some work to do on the offensive end. Banks needs to improve his touch around the rim on offense and his free throw shooting is woeful but he has a ton of upside and this is Smart's first big time recruit at Texas so far.
Banks was recruited by a lot of high major schools but only ended up taking two official visits one to Vanderbilt and one to Texas before ultimately deciding to become a Longhorn. Banks says that Smart had a lot to do with his decision.
"I took my first visit to Texas and my second visit to Vanderbilt and it was a close race between the two. As of late, I've been building a greater relationship with Shaka, feeling more comfortable with the staff, it factored in a huge part, not only the relationships, but Texas is a great academic institution and a great community. The relationship really played a part when it came to choosing a basketball school," said Banks.
Banks is an important recruit for the Longhorns because they will lose three key big men after the 2015 season in Cameron Ridley, Prince Ibeh and Connor Lammert. Banks may need time to develop at the college level before he reaches his true potential but he should get a chance to play immediately when he steps on campus in 2016. Banks' verbal commitment has brought Texas' 2016 recruiting class to number 23 in the rankings and Smart is likely not done trying to add to it.
