Vanderbilt basketball among finalists for five-star prospects Simi Shittu, Darius Garland

How good could Vanderbilt basketball’s recruiting class be? Very good. Easily one of the Commodores’ best ever.

But the gap between second-year coach Bryce Drew landing a pretty strong class and a best-ever class could lie in the upcoming decisions of a pair of five-star prospects, Simi Shittu and Brentwood Academy’s Darius Garland, who count Vanderbilt among their final choices.

Shittu, the No. 1 power forward in the 2018 class, took his official visit to Vanderbilt over the weekend, and he has only one other visit scheduled with a trip to North Carolina on Nov. 10.

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According to the Arizona Daily Star, Shittu canceled his visit to Arizona after Wildcats assistant coach Book Richardson was arrested as part of a federal investigation into corruption in college basketball recruiting.

That potentially puts Vanderbilt in Shittu’s top two choices. He is a 6-foot-8 power forward at Vermont Academy and ranked the No. 7 overall player in the 247Sports composite ratings.

Garland, the No. 3 point guard nationally, recently canceled his visit to Duke. He now lists Vanderbilt among his top four schools, and he still has visits slated for Indiana (Oct. 20), UCLA (Oct. 13) and Kentucky (Oct. 28), Brentwood Academy coach Hubie Smith said.

Garland is ranked the No. 10 overall player nationally and top prospect in Tennessee by 247Sports.

The NCAA early signing period for basketball is Nov. 8-15. The late period begins April 11, if players want to put off their decision. Vanderbilt has three available scholarships for the 2018 signing class.

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Vanderbilt already has landed a key commitment from four-star small forward Aaron Nesmith, who chose the Commodores over Florida and South Carolina. Other notable recruits such as five-star prospect Romeo Langford, the nation’s top-rated shooting guard, are considering the Commodores among their finalists.

Drew's first recruiting class featured four-star point guard Saben Lee, four-star center Ejike Obinna and three-star guard Maxwell Evans. They are set to debut in the Nov. 10 season opener versus Austin Peay.

Reach Adam Sparks at asparks@tennessean.com and on Twitter @AdamSparks.