Ja’Kobi Gillespie was the prized piece of Tennessee basketball’s transfer class over the offseason. The Greeneville native finally made his way back to East Tennessee after two seasons at Belmont and another earning All-Big 10 honors at Maryland.
Tennessee not only landed one of the best guards in the transfer but they got him at a hometown discount something that head coach Rick Barnes’ pointed out Friday.
“I can tell you, I think that he’s probably been the best value in all of college basketball this year by far,” Barnes said. “By far.”
Gillespie left a good deal of money on the table to come play his senior season for the school he grew up cheering for. Why did Gillespie turn the money down?
“Because it’s Tennessee and I’m from here,” Gillespie said. “It’s been a great program since he (Rick Barnes) has been here. I definitely wanted to be a part of it.”
Barnes told Gillespie that he was giving him the keys to the program during the portal recruitment and the veteran head coach “definitely didn’t lie” to Gillespie.
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His 25.5% usage rate is the second highest on Tennessee’s roster and he’s played 84.2% of the Vols’ minutes this season. Arkansas point guard Darius Acuff is the only player in the SEC totaling a higher percentage of his team’s minutes.
Gillespie has posted a career-high with 18 points as well as 5.6 assists per game this season. He’s not only one of the SEC’s best guards but one of its best players as a whole. Gillespie has impressed Barnes with his improvement over the course of the season while believing his best basketball is still ahead of him.
“He really has worked hard at learning how to be a point guard and really knowing how to run a team, learning how to play with his players, playing with post guys,” Barnes said. “I mean, he had never been in a situation where he ever had a lob threat. So the other night, I mean, you see how far he’s grown in that area. But defensively, he’s gotten so much better defensively. I think that he’s realized there’s so much more to his game.”
Getting someone with Gillespie’s level of production at a discount is rare. In the transfer portal era where things have become far more transactional, Gillespie is a unique case of choosing a place he loves over more money. Barnes hopes that is not lost on Tennessee fans.
“I mean, I’ve said before he could’ve gone last year and made a lot more money,” Barnes said. “I know that we all appreciate (him) and I hope that Vol Nation appreciates it because he did what he wanted to do and didn’t make it all about the money.”
