It’s been an eventful first month of the offseason for Tennessee basketball as the Vols have almost completely overhauled their roster. With Nate Ament announcing he’s declaring for the NBA Draft, Tennessee is returning just two scholarship players from last season.
The Vols knew they would have to replace production from seniors Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Felix Okpara and likely from Ament. But Tennessee also let six players walk to the transfer portal and the quantity was at least a mild surprise.
Meeting with the media last week, Rick Barnes explained why they have had so much roster movement.
“We were looking for production over retention, and I think we’ve done that,” Barnes said. “But these guys are, they’ll build their own team. You got to do it every year anyway. It doesn’t matter if you got guys coming back, a bunch of guys, you still have to build a new team every year.”
Barnes talked for much of the season about wanting to build around a young core that showed promise. Tennessee retained two of those players in Troy Henderson and DeWayne Brown but let others walk. The Vols’ veteran head coach downplayed the loss of retention and challenge of putting together a nearly brand new roster.
“People forget we had 11 new players last year,” Barnes said. “We did. … We’re gonna continue our, if you want to say culture, whatever it is— our standard. I’d rather say our standard, where that’s not gonna change anywhere about this program. We’re not going to ever lower it.”
Tennessee opted for production over retention and they have done just that with the six transfers they have added to the roster to date.
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The Vols six outgoing transfers combined to average 31.8 points in the games they played. Even including Tennessee’s five other outgoing players, the Vols are losing 80.6 points in the games they played.
Tennessee’s six incoming transfers averaged 85.9 points in the games they played last season. Only two of the six played at the power five level but Dai Dai Ames averaged 16.9 points per game at Cal and Jalen Haralson averaged 16.2 points per game at Notre Dame.
Combo guard Terrence Hill Jr. and center Miles Rubin played in the A10— one of the best mid major conferences. Tyler Lundblade was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year.
After the Vols’ Elite Eight loss against Michigan, Barnes said that Tennessee needed to add more shooting to its roster this next season. The Vols’ 11 outgoing players made 234 triples last season. Tennessee’s six incoming transfers made 280 three-pointers.
“No doubt. We feel like we’ve done that,” Barnes said of if Tennessee addressed its need for more shooting.
Rebounding and assists are the only stats where Tennessee has lost more than its brought in to this point. The Vols lost an average of 41 rebounds per game while adding 23.8 rebounds through the portal. Tennessee’s 11 outgoing players averaged 16.7 assists in the games they played while the Vols’ six incoming players averaged 13 assists per game.
All those numbers do not include Tennessee’s four prep signees of Marquis Clark, Manny Green, Ralph Scott and Chris Washington Jr.
Tennessee is still looking to add star Wake Forest guard Juke Harris and one more big man to its roster, but the Vols have done a strong job of adding the production they wanted at the start of the portal period.
