Tennessee Basketball will take on multiple former Vols next season, including Texas guard Amari Evans. According to a report from CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein on Monday night, the Vols will take on the Longhorns in Austin, TX, at some point during the SEC slate.
In addition to the game against Evans and the Longhorns, Tennessee will also reportedly play Jaylen Carey’s Missouri Tigers twice during SEC play and will face Bishop Boswell and Maryland during the Players Era Tournament before Thanksgiving.
Evans spent his freshman season with the Volunteers in Knoxville, earning a role that continued to grow throughout the season. He then hit the portal and wound up signing with Texas as part of a stacked Longhorns transfer class.
He averaged 4.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.0 steals per game with the Vols, but his numbers were better in SEC play with 5.2 PPG and 3.5 RPG. Evans was also known for his strong defensive presence on the perimeter, which helped him find time on the court in Rick Barnes’ program. During Tennessee’s four games in the NCAA Tournament, Evans averaged 2.75 points, 3.75 rebounds, and 1.25 assists per game.
Tennessee saw Sean Miller’s Texas Longhorns one time during Evans’ freshman season in Knoxville. Evans played 23 minutes in the win and scored four points on 1-of-3 shooting and 2-of-2 free-throw shooting.
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Evans played in 35 games for the Vols with an average of 14.4 minutes on the court per game. He earned two starts late in the regular season as Tennessee star freshman Nate Ament was sidelined with an injury before the SEC Tournament. Evans’ best game of the season came when he scored 24 points in the regular season finale against Vanderbilt. It was one of two SEC double-digit scoring showings for the freshman, with the other coming against Arkansas in the conference opener (16 points).
Tennessee and Texas put together some of the strongest transfer portal classes in the nation this offseason. ESPN’s Jeff Borzello recently tagged the Vols with the best portal class in the nation, while slotting Texas with the third-best class.
Rothstein’s report states that Tennessee will face off against Evans’ Longhorns and Jaylen Carey’s Missouri Tigers during the SEC season. Depending on how the regular season and SEC Tournament slates shake out, the Vols could also wind up facing Cade Phillips and the Texas A&M Aggies, too. The Vols will play Bishop Boswell and Maryland during the opening round of the Players Era Tournament on Thanksgiving week.
Tennessee has played in Austin three times this century, with two of those matchups coming in the Rick Barnes-Tennessee era. The Vols won 95-78 in 2005, lost 52-51 in 2022, and won 74-70 in 2025.
Rick Barnes previously spent 17 years as the head coach of Texas from 1998 to 2015, compiling a 402-180 record with the Longhorns.
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