Strange: Rick Barnes takes Tennessee basketball recruiting all over the map
We interrupt our obsession with spring football to acknowledge that basketball recruiting has surfaced for air.
The spring signing period opened Wednesday. If you figured most of the hay was in the barn after the November signing period, you'd be only half right.
True, the majority of top recruits signs in November. That way the burden of recruitment is off their shoulders before their final high school season. It also frees time to choreograph dunk routines for the McDonald's All-American Game.
Even so, there's a lot of recruiting still going on in April and on multiple fronts.
Take Tennessee. Rick Barnes added two spring high school prospects, four-star Yves Pons from France and three-star Derrick Walker from Kansas City, both, by the way, new locales to plant the UT flag.
Pons and Walker join three-star center Zach Kent, who signed in November out of Delaware, yet another new territory Tennessee is exploring in the Barnes era.
Barnes pays little attention to recruiting rankings, but the rest of us can't help but peek. 247Sports ranks UT's 2017 class 12th in the SEC, ahead of Mississippi State and LSU. Kentucky is No. 1 in the nation. Alabama is No. 4, and Cuonzo Martin has crashed Missouri into the top 20.
The high school circuit is only one of three rings, though. UT is involved with both a junior college recruit, Chris Darrington, and a grad transfer, James Daniel.
RELATED: Barnes excited to add Yves Pons, Derrick Walker
Combing the junior colleges to plug holes is nothing new. The transfer pool from four-year schools, on the other hand, has exploded in the past decade.
With Kent, Walker and Pons in the fold, Tennessee has one remaining scholarship — because freshman Kwe Parker is transferring. But if UT fills it, a roster with no seniors leaves no offers for the 2018 class.
That's subject to change. Transferring is epidemic. More than 700 players transferred last season. An NCAA study showed 40 percent of signees leave their original school by the end of their sophomore season. Memphis has six players leaving, Pittsburgh five.
So, the odds are good somebody on the UT roster will move on, opening up a spot.
Barnes, however, doesn't want to fill his last slot with a four-year player unless he's a dandy. There aren't many of those available at the moment. Darrington and Daniel, a prolific scorer at Howard, both are eligible immediately. Howard would have one year to play, then leave, just as Lew Evans did this year. Darrington has two years.
Exploring international prospects like Pons and transfers like Daniel makes sense for Tennessee. Probably more sense than trying to pry a blue-chipper out of Memphis.
SEC teams fielded 23 international players last season, including UT's Canadian sophomore Kyle Alexander. The Vols have dipped into Canada, Africa and the Caribbean before, but Pons is the first Euro Vol. It's about time.
Gonzaga played for the national championship with five internationals, including the Polish mountain Przemek Karnowski. Three talented Canadians helped Oregon reach the Final Four.
South Carolina's breakthrough never happens without five internationals, among them Maik Kotsar, an unsung freshman discovered in Estonia. Even Ole Miss searched out three Europeans, including Sebastian Saiz, a Spanish double-double machine.
Back on the home front, if the transfer culture is trending up, catch the wave. Tyler Smith and J.P. Prince were keys to UT's 2008 SEC championship. Tennessee's 2014 Sweet 16 team started Marquette transfer Jeronne Maymon and Antonio Barton, a one-year grad transfer from Memphis.
Dominic Woodson ... well, never mind.
The final word, of course, is you need some ballers, whether you find them in Nashville or Norway.
Mike Strange may be reached at mike.strange@knoxnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at Strangemike44.