Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes announced Thursday that 6-7 wing Davonte Gaines (pronounced: duh-VON-tay) has signed and submitted a National Letter of Intent and plans to enroll at UT as a freshman in the summer of 2019.
Gaines had been verbally committed to the Vols since July of 2017.
After graduating from Health Sciences Charter School in his hometown of Buffalo, New York, in 2018, Gaines is spending a year at Hargrave Military Academy Prep in Chatham, Virginia. Gaines was coached by Ty Parker at Health Sciences, and he now plays for head coach Lee Martin at Hargrave.
According to 247Sports.com, Gaines was rated as the No. 5 overall prospect in his class in the state of New York before transitioning to Hargrave. He is a two-time New York State Sportswriters Association Class B All-State first-team selection (2017 and 2018).
“Davonte has a tremendous future ahead of him,” Barnes said. “We’re all excited about the opportunity to work with him, because he has so much potential. What makes him special as a player is his versatility. He has excellent size and length and is an excellent passer and playmaker, which will improve our overall skill on the perimeter. Of course, he also has the ability to score. This season at Hargrave Military Academy will help him immensely.”
Nicknamed “The Ticket,” Gaines logged a triple-double in the first game of his senior season and followed that up with a rare quadruple-double in a victory over Cleveland Hill, during which he totaled 20 points, 13 steals, 11 assists and 10 rebounds.
As a junior, Gaines earned second-team Buffalo News All-Western New York honors after propelling the Falcons to their first-ever Section VI Class B championship and the semifinals of the state tournament. He finished the year with averages of 17.7 points, 12.1 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 4.0 blocks and 3.0 steals per game.
One of his many highlight reel slams during that 2016-17 junior campaign—specifically, a second-quarter transition jam against Lackawanna—was voted “Best Dunk” at the Sixth Annual Buffalo News Boys Basketball Awards in April of 2017.
Gaines averaged 15.4 points per game as a sophomore in 2015-16. He played his AAU ball with Parker’s New Heights program, based out of New York, as well as the Corey Graham Elite program.
Several New York natives have enjoyed successful collegiate careers at Tennessee, including Hall of Famer Bernard King, current Washington Wizards President/General Manager Ernie Grunfeld, All-American center Howard Wood and current Los Angeles Clippers forward Tobias Harris.
Like Gaines, Tennessee associate head coach Rob Lanier and assistant coach Desmond Oliver both are Buffalo natives.
-UT Athletics
