The 2023-24 college basketball season came to a close on Monday night when Connecticut knocked off Purdue to become the first repeat National Champion since Florida went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007.
The day after the National Championship means one things— way-too-early college basketball rankings for the 2024-25 season.
Tennessee is a consensus top 25 team in the way-too-early rankings. The Vols return All-SEC point guard Zakai Zeigler and power forward Jonas Aidoo. Rick Barnes’ 10th team team will also include a number of key contributors from last season including Jahmai Mashack, Jordan Gainey and Tobe Awaka.
While Tennessee returns a number of key players, they also lose three starters from its highly successful 2023-24 team. All three of Dalton Knecht, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi are all out of eligibility and moving on to professional basketball.
The Vols still have four scholarships to work with ahead of the next season so their roster will change a lot in the coming weeks. Still, Tennessee has the bones of another strong roster and strong team next season.
Here’s where they landed in way-too-early top 25 rankings on Tuesday.
More From RTI: Tennessee Wing Enters The Transfer Portal
ESPN (Jeff Borzello)
National ranking: No. 9
SEC ranking: No. 1
What they said about the Vols: “Dalton Knecht is gone and Rick Barnes’ best offense in several years is out the door with him. But if the more up-tempo, 3-point-heavy offensive system remains in Knoxville, there should be plenty of optimism. Zakai Zeigler is one of the best point guards in the country, and Jonas Aidoo made significant strides as a junior. The Vols will need someone on the wing to step up as a scorer, and a sleeper name to become that guy is sophomore-to-be Cameron Carr.”
247sports (Isaac Trotter)
National ranking: No. 7
SEC ranking: No. 2
What they said about the Vols: “Zakai Zeigler is one of the best guards in the SEC, and Jonas Aidoo can be an All-League big man in 2024-25. Another step from those two can help alleviate the huge crater Dalton Knecht is leaving behind. Attrition is always expected for a talent-laden program like Tennessee, but the Vols should be in great shape if role players like Tobe Awaka, JP Estrella, Jahmai Mashack, Jordan Gainey and Cameron Carr all run it back.
Knecht provides Tennessee with one helluva “proof of concept” for any and all portal pitches. If the Vols add a few wings and keep the top dawgs, the Vols will be firmly in the mix for another SEC Championship.”
USA Today
National ranking: No. 8
SEC ranking: No. 2
What they said about the Vols: “Tennessee loses three key pieces in Dalton Knecht, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi. Rick Barnes will have to go back into the transfer portal to find some scoring on the wing to replace Knecht. (Good luck with that.) But the Volunteers will be a veteran team potentially led by four seniors in Zakai Zeigler, Jonas Aidoo, Jahmai Mashack and Jordan Gainey. That’s a strong starting point for a team good enough to win another SEC regular-season crown.”
Yahoo! Sports (Ryan Young)
National ranking: No. 18
SEC ranking: No. 4
What they said about the Vols: “Dalton Knecht is gone, which hurts Tennessee a lot. But Zakai Zeigler is coming off a tremendous season, and several other players could step up to try and fill the gap that Knecht is leaving.”
The Athletic (Sam Vecinie and CJ Moore)
National ranking: No. 8
SEC ranking: No. 2
What they said about the Vols: “The Volunteers will lose first-team All-American Dalton Knecht, and that is a significant loss. Knecht is what made Tennessee different this season, allowing them to score bail-out buckets when the offensive execution got tough. Next year, they’ll need to find that answer — potentially in the portal again, given that they still project to have three (really four) open scholarship slots.
But the backbone of this recent Tennessee run has been elite defense, and all of the pieces from this past season’s No. 3 defense in the country, per KenPom, are back. Zeigler and Mashack on the perimeter as well as Aidoo on the interior are the important players there, as Rick Barnes has created a terrific high-pressure defense that also protects the rim at an elite level. The big thing this current group will need is some of the rising sophomores to step up, including dynamic offensive player Carr, a former top-50 recruit who was just quite skinny this past season and needed a bit of time to develop his frame.”
Fox Sports (John Fanta)
National ranking: No. 7
SEC ranking: No. 1
What they said about the Vols: “The Volunteers are in the top 10 because they’ve won at a high level in recent seasons and have familiar faces back next year, starting with point guard Zakai Zeigler. I would expect that we see growth from Jordan Gainey and Jahmai Mashack, while big man Jonas Aidoo returns as well. Dalton Knecht will likely (definitively) be moving on to the NBA, but Tennessee will have the assets to acquire transfer portal help as well.”
Sports Illustrated (Kevin Sweeney)
National ranking: No. 9
SEC ranking: No. 1
What they said about the Vols: “It won’t be easy for Rick Barnes to replicate what he found in the transfer portal a year ago with Dalton Knecht, but the nucleus is still in place for this group to be highly competitive. Zakai Zeigler gives UT one of the best point guards in the country, and center Jonas Aidoo’s offensive game keeps expanding. An additional scoring pop on the wing should be a portal priority, but there’s plenty here to build on even if it will be a Herculean challenge to replace Knecht in the portal. ”
FanDuel (Jon Rothstein)
National ranking: No. 14
SEC ranking: No. 3
What they said about the Vols: Nothing
Sporting News (Mike DeCourcy)
National ranking: No. 17
SEC ranking: No. 4
What they said about the Vols: Nothing
