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Texas Basketball Recruiting News: James Banks is Shaka Smart's First Top-100 Commit

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Shaka Smart secured his first top-100 recruit as the head men's basketball coach at the University of Texas with James Banks, a four-star center from Atlanta.

According to ESPN, Banks was narrowed his decision to Texas, Georgetown, Illinois, Vanderbilt and Purdue, but had offers from all around the SEC. Banks is 56th overall on the 2016 ESPN 100 and is the sixth-highest ranked center in the class.

"I felt like Texas made me such a priority," Banks told ESPN. "They were at all my games during the live period and on the first day of the contact period I had a 6 a.m. workout - Coach Smart and assistant coach Mike Morrell were there at 5:30 a.m.

"Coach Smart is a genuine person and all the players I spoke with were real supportive of him. I believe he will be there for me as a coach and as a person."

247 Sports gave Banks a 0.9754 composite score and ranked him similarly to ESPN. At six-foot-11 and 230 pounds, Banks has ideal size for a center and is considered to be an excellent athlete. He needs to refine some of his offensive moves, but ESPN called his upside on both ends of the court "tremendous."

"I expect nothing less than the best," Banks told 247 Sports. "They'll have a great recruiting class this year and the next year. We'll win a championship."

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