Jarnell Stokes won't be playing his college basketball at the University of Kentucky, but the Wildcats will see him soon enough.
Stokes, a five-star power forward, announced Thursday night that he will attend Tennessee and intends to enroll immediately so he can play out the remainder of the season. The No. 11 recruit in the class of 2012 chose the Vols over UK, Florida, Memphis, Arkansas and UConn.
Kentucky will play at Tennessee on Jan. 14 and then host the Vols at Rupp Arena on Jan. 31. Stokes, who was ruled ineligible for his senior season of high school after a transfer flap, graduated earlier this month and is expected to be allowed to play at the college level immediately.
UK and Memphis were recently considered favorites to land Stokes, but neither school had an athletic scholarship available. Under NCAA rules, Stokes would not have been eligible to play for either of those schools until the 2012-13 season.
Tennessee is 4-6 so far in its first full season without ousted head coach Bruce Pearl, with losses to Oakland, Austin Peay and College of Charleston.
Kentucky's 2012 recruiting class is already ranked No. 2 in the country by Scout.com. Five-star players Archie Goodwin and Alex Poythress, and four-star recruit Willie Cauley all signed with the Cats in November.
UK's top target remains Shabazz Muhammad, the unanimous choice as the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2012. Muhammad, who is also considering UCLA, UNLV, Duke, Kansas and Arizona, is not expected to choose a school until the spring.
Rivals.com recruiting analyst Jerry Meyer wrote in his weekly column Thursday that Muhammad seems to be favoring the Wildcats.
"My take is that the current leader for Muhammad is Kentucky," Meyer said. "Muhammad is always looking to expand his game and take it to another level, and my impression is that he thinks the Kentucky system is the best system for him to develop his game."
Kentucky is also in good shape with five-star forwards Anthony Bennett and Amile Jefferson. Neither of those recruits has set a decision date.
