Shaka Smart nailed down a commitment from the highest-rated recruit of his career as a head coach when 6’7, 172-pound SF Terry Larrier (The Phelps School, Pa./Team SCAN AAU) out of the Bronx, NY committed to the Rams today.

Larrier is the highest-rated recruit for VCU in 23 years since 1990 McDonald’s All-American Kendrick Warren committed to the Rams. Larrier is a long, athletic prospect with tremendous upside and 3-point shooting ability. He’s also an adept slasher with an improving handle for his size and has the athleticism to finish plays at or above the rim.

He’s got great potential as a wing player with an improving mid-range game but can play the 4 with a good jump hook and experience playing at the PF position prior to developing his perimeter skills over the last year. He also has tremendous potential as a serviceable post defender and a shut-down wing defender with quick feet, height, athleticism, and a 6’10” wingspan.

He will need to improve his ball-handling at the next level to thrive at the wing and his consistency on offense is something that needs work as well. He shows flashes of greatness and putting those stretches together more consistently will go a long way towards taking Terry to the next level. He’s a player with the kind of tremendous upside and raw potential that is downright scary for the rest of the A-10.

Terry was present for VCU’s beatdowns of Florida Gulf Coast (Nov. 9th), the Alabama Crimson Tide (December 15th), and Butler (March 2nd) last year on unofficial visits. He surged this spring at the Nike EYBL in Hampton and then the Pangos All-American Camp, rocketing up the recruiting rankings and earning invites to the Kevin Durant and LeBron James Skills Academies.

Larrier was one of Smart’s highest priority recruits during the July live evaluation period. Coach Smart followed the forward at the Nike EYBL Peach Jam, Nike Global Challenge, and the Kansas City Hardwood Classic.

Larrier made another unofficial visit to VCU’s campus soon after on August 9th. He followed that up by taking an official visit to VCU along with fellow 2014 VCU commit Jonathan Williams and Michael Gilmore this weekend.

Larrier may be the most highly-recruited player in VCU history with 42 D1 scholarship offers per verbalcommits.com. He cut his list down to 6 schools: VCU, UConn, Florida, Miami, Florida State, and Seton Hall before his official visit. Following the visit he announced that his final 2 schools would be VCU and UConn before choosing VCU today.

ESPN: 4 stars (84 grade), #59 in 2014 ESPN100

Scout: 4 stars, #61 in 2014 Scout Top 100, #15 SF

Rivals: 4 stars, #39 in 2014 Rivals150

Larrier joins PG Jonathan Williams (St. Benedict’s Prep/ Team Loaded NC AAU) and PF Justin Tillman (Pershing H.S./ R.E.A.C.H. Legends AAU) in VCU’s 2014 Class. With Larrier now in the mix, the 2014 class is in the conversation for best recruiting class in VCU history.

Welcome to the Ram Nation Terry Larrier!