Tennessee added another piece to its 2026-2027 roster on Monday afternoon, landing a commitment from former Vanderbilt forward Jalen Washington, according to On3’s Joe Tipton.
For Tennessee fans, Washington is already a familiar face. He spent his first three seasons at North Carolina before moving to Vanderbilt for his senior year, and that path put him across from the Vols four times in college.
One of those came with the Tar Heels, and three came in a Commodores uniform. Across those matchups, Washington logged 80 total minutes against Tennessee - basically the workload of two full games.
His first meeting with the Vols came in his sophomore season at UNC, when Tennessee traveled to Chapel Hill for the ACC-SEC Challenge. That game is remembered for Dalton Knecht’s huge night in a narrow Vols loss, but Washington was efficient in his own role.
He finished with seven points on 3-of-3 shooting in eight minutes, while also making his lone free throw. He added three rebounds, one assist, one steal, one foul and one turnover.
Washington saw Tennessee three more times last season while at Vanderbilt, including twice in the regular season and once in the SEC Tournament.
The first of those games came in Nashville, where he put up eight points on 4-of-7 shooting in 26 minutes. He also grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked six shots, though he was flirting with foul trouble with four personals.
The next meeting was the regular-season finale in Knoxville. Washington scored seven points on 3-of-7 shooting in 24 minutes and added eight rebounds, one block and two fouls.
A week later, Tennessee and Vanderbilt met again at Bridgestone Arena in the SEC Tournament. Washington finished with seven points on 1-of-4 shooting, but he helped at the line by going 5-of-6 there. He also posted seven rebounds, two assists, three blocks and four fouls in 22 minutes.
For the season at Vanderbilt, Washington averaged 5.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.5 assists while shooting 58.8% from the floor. He appeared in 36 games, made nine starts and played 20.6 minutes per contest.
He now becomes Tennessee’s ninth portal addition of the offseason and the fourth big man in the group, joining Braeden Lue, Christian Fermin and Miles Rubin. That gives the Vols more depth and another player with SEC experience in a frontcourt that can use the help.
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