Bruce Pearl has to be happy tonight, as his star recruiting prospect, five-star forward Tobias Harris of Dix Hills, N.Y., just announced his commitment to the University of Tennessee.

Harris, rated seventh overall by ESPNU and universally regarded as a top-10 prospect in the Class of 2010, rolled with the Vols in favor of competing offers from Big East powers Louisville, Syracuse and West Virginia, Maryland and Georgia Tech from the ACC, and UT arch-rival Kentucky in the SEC.

Over at ESPN, Matt Winklejohn has this great feature on Harris's growth as a player over the last several years.

The SEC was college basketball's punching bag last season, but between Kentucky's Calipari revival and Pearl's hard work at Tennessee, it's starting to look as if the conference may return to prominence sooner than expected. 

Nabbing a major prospect like Harris is a coup for Pearl, Tennessee and the SEC as a whole.