Tennessee basketball extended an offer to five-star power forward Christian Collins on Thursday afternoon, he shared on his X (Twitter).
Collins is a five-star recruit and the No. 2 player in the entire 2026 cycle according to the 247sports composite rankings. The 6-foot-8, 200-pound prospect also ranks as the No. 1 power forward in the country.
The blue-chip recruit is a Los Angeles native who attends St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower. Collins helped lead the Braves to a 26-7 record in his junior season.
Collins has scheduled two official visits to date and is planning to visit Southern Cal the final weekend of August and Kentucky in October. It will be an incredibly uphill battle for Tennessee to pluck one of the top recruits in the country out of California but they need to get him on campus for an official visit if they’re going to give themselves a chance.
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Tennessee is still in the early stages of its 2026 recruiting cycle and is truly just now beginning to finalize its board as the summer evaluation period winds down. The Vols do not yet have a commit in their 2026 class but will likely sign a smaller one after adding four prep prospects and two more international players in their 2025 class.
Five-star point guard Deron Rippey Jr. and four-star point guard Miles Sadler are the top two targets on Tennessee’s board at this point with Sadler officially visiting in August and Rippey officially visiting in October.
The Vols also hosted three other visitors on campus this summer including four-star wing Gage Mayfield (official), four-star guard Junior County (unofficial) and three-star point guard Sam “Deuce” Simmons Jr (unofficial). Tennessee hopes to get County back on campus for an official visit this fall.
Tennessee also has interest in a number of other blue-chip targets including Bo Ogden, LaTrell Almond, Bryson Howard and Manny Green. Which recruits the Vols bring on campus this fall will give us a better idea of who their top targets are.
