One of the longest running—but quietest—recruiting chases Tennessee has been involved in for some time ended tonight when four-star big man DJ Burns announced his intentions to be a Volunteer.

Burns (6-foot-8, 250 pounds), from York Prep in Rock Hill, S.C., has been a high priority target for Rick Barnes and his staff since his freshman year in high school (which was only two years ago, more on that in a moment).

Tennessee has long been thought by many to be the leader to land him, but Burns himself had never said so. Until today.

Burns announced earlier this month that he was graduating from high school early and reclassifying into the 2019 class, so Tennessee will get him on campus this summer, a year earlier than the coaches had originally thought.

“There’s really not one specific reason why Tennessee was my choice, there are a bunch of them,” Burns said when asked what made the Vols the right fit for him in the end. “It’s a great school first of all, top-25 in the nation academically. Their sports teams are all great and as far as basketball goes,

“Coach Barnes is an outstanding coach. He has a great staff behind him. Coach (Des) Oliver, Coach (Rob) Lanier, Coach (Schwartz), all of his assistants are outstanding coaches.

“Their facilities are second to none, and really I just feel like it’s a place where I can thrive.”

Burns made an official visit to Tennessee in late April and then followed that up three weeks later to in-state South Carolina, who made a hard push down the stretch.

The Gamecocks ended up being the Vols’ stiffest competition for Burns, but he also entertained offers from Virginia, NC State, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Georgia among others.

As for his decision to graduate a year early and jump start his college career ahead of schedule, that wasn’t the result of some long term plan on Burns’ part. Rather, it seems to be something he stumbled into as a result of being an excellent student.

He didn’t even realize it was going to be a possibility until a few months ago.

“When I was going into meetings before my high school season, trying to get my classes for my senior year I just realized that at York Tech or Winthrop (off his high school campus), so I wasn’t even going be really considered a senior because I was pretty much done with all my high school courses,” Burns said of how he decided to make the move into the 2018 class.

“Since I only had one more class to take for high school my guidance counselor suggested looking into graduating early and just getting started with college.

“After looking at my transcript I was only going to have to take one more class to graduate. Me and mom found out that I could take it online so I could finish up this year. My teachers found a course that I could take online for my last credit. Now my last exam is on May 17 and I’ll be done with high school.”

As Burns listed above, he had a long list of reasons that pushed Tennessee over the top, landing him in Knoxville as the highest rated recruit Barnes has signed in his four classes since taking over.

There’s typically a point man in any program’s recruiting efforts, and the ‘tip of the spear’ for the Vols in this one was assistant coach Des Oliver. Entering his fourth year working for Barnes, Oliver has been no stranger to mining the Carolinas for talent to bring over the state line, and the Charlotte area has been especially fruitful, yielding last year’s SEC Player of the Year, Grant Williams.

Burns credits Oliver with building a relationship which turned out to be a large factor in his decision.

“All of the coaches recruited me, but the one I talk to the most is Coach Oliver. He puts a lot of time into me, and most coaches, they do a lot of their recruiting by talking to my parents. And that’s cool let my parents in on everything, but I’m the one that’s going to be the one that’s going to be on campus for four years, not them,” Burns said of what set his relationship with Oliver apart.

“Coach Oliver really picked up on that. He would call me before school every day at one point. He asked me what time I went to school and I told him 7:30, so pretty much every day at 7:35 I’d get a call from him and we’d just talk about basketball or life, or just anything. He made a big effort to build that relationship and that was something that stood out to me.”

Relationship and academics aside, no player of Burns’ stature is going to pick a program that he doesn’t feel fits his style of play.

He has no doubt he’s found that in Tennessee, where Barnes emphasizes an ‘inside-out’ approach on offense. He demands that the post gets fed, but he also demands that the post players be able to pass out and make the defense react and move in addition to score.

Burns feels that fits his style like a glove.

“They play as a team first of all and that’s a big thing to me. On my high school team I score a lot, but I pass the ball a lot too, that’s something I’m real big on,” Burns said of what appealed to him about Tennessee’s brand of basketball under Barnes.

“Just seeing the way they play, at one point they were leading the NCAA in assist per game, and I’m like, ‘that’s how I play.’ They get the ball into the post, but the post isn’t looking to shoot it every time, they’re going to pass it out. That’s something that really stood out to me.”

What will stand out to Tennessee fans is the maturity and strength in Burns’ game despite the fact that he’ll be entering college a year early.

He’s got a big body and he knows how to use it inside, both to get his own position and push opponents off of their spots. Despite that size he’s got nice footwork and is a young big man who likes to work with his back to the basket, not always a common site these days.

He’s also got a solid mid-range shot, but doesn’t feel like he needs to score to make an impact on the game.

His early play on the high-level NIKE EYBL circuity has born that out where he’s third among all players averaging 2.5 blocks per game.

“I’m a post player who can extend out beyond just the post. Most of my moves are from back-to-the basket, but I can hit the mid-range shot and if I have a slower defender on me I can bring him out and and drive the ball. I’m pretty good with my mid-range shot right now and I’ve been working on extending out beyond the three-point line,” Burns said in describing his game.

“Really though I just try to play my role. If my team needs me to just stay back and block shots or focus on rebounding for us to win that’s what I’ll do. If you need me to be a defender, that’s fine. If you need me to score this game, then I’m going score. I just like to help my team win.”