On a dreary Friday on May 10 in Memphis, every Tiger basketball fan was in full anticipation for the announcement of where Lester Quinones would play basketball next season.
For the last few weeks, it had been known that the shooting guard from IMG Academy would be making his announcement at 4 p.m. Central Time from New York.
The announcement was shown live via Quinones Instagram’s account. Unlike most players that make their decision on where they would attend college, it only took a couple of minutes before the decision to play as Memphis was known.
“I will be taking my talents to the University of Memphis,” Quinones said as he unzipped a jacket to reveal a 901 Memphis Tigers t-shirt. His family quickly put on or revealed Memphis gear. The announcement sent Memphis twitter accounts in a frenzy. Various fans were retweeting with various congratulatory tweets.
Then, on Saturday with very little fanfare, another target of the Tigers, Rajon Tucker, announced via Twitter that he would be attending the University of Memphis this fall.
Tucker had begun the process to be evaluated by the NBA to determine his position in the upcoming draft in June. Tucker played for the University of Little Rock last season. Tucker played against the Tigers last year when his former team loss to Memphis.
110% committed NEXT CHAPTER #GTG ???? pic.twitter.com/WiPNwfyBNi
— Boogie Ellis (@BoogieEllis) May 13, 2019
On Monday, without any warning, Boogie Ellis alerted the world of where he was going to play basketball next season. Via Twitter Ellis said, “110% committed NEXT CHAPTER #GTG” with a picture of him and a Memphis Tigers logo. Once again Memphis twitter went wild as well as the national media.
With the addition of Ellis, Quinones and Tucker and along with previous signed James Wiseman, Malcolm Dandridge, Damion Baugh and DJ Jeffries, most critics openly question how will all these players be happy? Memphis was one of the fastest teams last season, may be even faster this season.
All of the players that have announced over the last few days have said the same thing, in some form or another: .I want to get Memphis back to where they once were. I want to compete for a national championship. I want Hardaway to prepare me to play in the NBA.
The Tigers are still in the hunt for several other uncommitted players. Trendon Watford, RJ Hampton and Precious Achiuwa. After the announcement by Boogie Ellis, Hampton said thru sources that Memphis still remain in contention for Achiuwa next season. Achiuwa stated on Twitter to stay tuned for a possible announcement on Sunday, May 19 on where he will play basketball this fall.
Currently, the Tigers have the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. There are still some big name uncommitted players that are still left. One of the goals for the Tigers’ coaching staff was to have the top recruiting class in the country.
From all indications, they are headed in that direction.
