Tennessee’s offseason buzz got another boost on Wednesday when ESPN’s Jeff Borzello refreshed his way-too-early men’s college basketball rankings and kept the Vols sitting firmly in the top 10.
Not much moved near the top of the list. Michigan slipped a few spots after losing head coach Dusty May to the Dallas Mavericks, while St.
John’s and Michigan State each fell one spot in the top 10. Miami climbed a little in the top 20.
Tennessee, though, held steady at No. 6.
That keeps the Vols as the second-highest-ranked SEC team behind only No. 1 Florida.
Borzello slotted Tennessee ahead of several league rivals, including No. 7 Texas, No.
11 Arkansas, No. 15 Alabama, No.
17 Kentucky, No. 20 Vanderbilt, and No.
21 Missouri.
Borzello also added a new wrinkle to the update by naming the most impactful newcomer for each team. For Tennessee, that choice was Wake Forest transfer Juke Harris, who had already been labeled the sixth-best transfer prospect in the class before signing with the Vols.
“Tennessee landed a terrific transfer class, with Harris as the headliner,” Borzello writes. “He was one of the nation’s best scorers last season, averaging 21.4 points as a sophomore at Wake Forest.
He went for 38 points against Boston College and had 30-plus points three times. Coach Rick Barnes clearly wanted an offensive upgrade from the transfer portal after some of the Vols’ issues at that end of the court, and Harris probably will have every chance to be the go-to guy.”
Borzello’s projected Tennessee lineup also tells the story of just how much the roster has changed. His five includes Terrence Hill Jr., Tyler Lundblade, Juke Harris, Jalen Haralson, and Miles Rubin - all transfers.
That overhaul has been the theme of Tennessee’s offseason. Barnes and his staff leaned into portal production instead of keeping the roster intact, and the result is a group that looks very different from last season’s team. The Vols have only two returners, DeWayne Brown and Troy Henderson, while six players exited through the portal.
The incoming class is deep and loaded with scoring punch. Tennessee’s eight-man group includes six players ranked in the Top 100 of 247Sports’ transfer portal rankings: Juke Harris at No.
8, Terrence Hill Jr. at No. 19, Jalen Haralson at No.
25, Dai Dai Ames at No. 53, Tyler Lundblade at No. 59, and Miles Rubin at No.
- Five of the eight newcomers also averaged at least 15.0 points per game at their previous schools.
VFL Mark Griffin thinks that kind of depth could make Tennessee a nightmare to prepare for.
“The one thing that’s hurt Coach Barnes’ teams in the past is that guy that, at the end of the game, your go-to guy, like a Dalton Knecht. And have another Dalton Knecht right there next to him,” Griffin said on The RTI Low-Down.
“Scouting reports? You can stop one shooter.
You can. You can limit one shooter.
You can’t limit three. And then you can’t limit two that come off the bench when the others are tired and you’re in foul trouble.
You can look down that bench and go, I got options.”
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The latest SEC assessment, though, lands him in a spot Tennessee fans probably would have preferred to see a little higher. Heupel was slotted ninth among the leagues 16 head coaches, a reminder that even with his success, the perception battle in this conference is relentless. With Faizon Brandon, George MacIntyre and Ryan Staub fighting for the quarterback job and Jim Knowles stepping in as defensive coordinator, the Vols are still in the middle of shaping what this next version of the program is going to look like. [Read more 🡒]