Tennessee basketball concluded its summer practices on Thursday afternoon as Rick Barnes’ 11th team in Knoxville now gets a few weeks off before the start of the fall semester and the resumption of team workouts.
But the Vols did not have their whole roster in Knoxville this summer as international signees Clarence Massamba and Ethan Burg had not yet arrived on campus. The original expectation was for Massamba to arrive in Knoxville for the second session of summer school but that never happened. So when will Massamba arrive in Knoxville?
“Well, we expect him to be here with (the start of) school, and he might come over early,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said of Massamba. “He could get here early. He’s still doing some things with his national team, and we’re expecting (him) to be here when we get back.”
Ethan Burg did not sign with Tennessee until mid July and there was never an expectation for him to join the Vols in Knoxville before the end of the summer.
Tennessee hopes that Burg will be on campus for the start of the fall semester later in August but there’s a bit more nuance there due to the combo guard going through tryouts with the Israeli national team.
“Same thing,” Barnes said of when Burg could arrive on campus. “He’s still with his national team going through tryouts And we expect him to— we’ll see how far he can go with that. I think he’s got one more cut here in a week or so, and if he makes it past that, we’ll wait and see what happens.”
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Burg is a 22-year old guard who played his last two seasons professionally in his home country of Israel. During the 2024-25 season, Burg averaged 11.1 points on 45% from the field, 38% from three-point range and 80% from the foul line. Playing in 24 games, the 6-foot-3 guard made 1.6 three pointers per game.
He also averaged 3.4 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 0.9 steals per game.He posted similar numbers during the 2023-24 season, averaging 10.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. He was less efficient shooting the ball, making 42% of his shots from the field and 29% from three-point range.
Massamba is a 19-year old guard who played two seasons of high school basketball in Florida before moving back to his home country of France last season to play for the AC Monaco U21 team. he averaged 9.8 points on 45% shooting from the field and 34% shooting from three-point range. The 6-foot-5 guard added 2.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
There’s opportunity waiting both Burg and Massamba in their first collegiate season. Tennessee’s shooting guard spot is unsettled entering next season and the duo will join Amaree Abram, Bishop Boswell, Troy Henderson and Amari Evans in competing for playing time at the spot.
Tennessee projects as a top 25 team again next season and has the potential of a top 10 team especially if someone can step up and produce at shooting guard.
