Dalton Knecht posterizes Malik Hall

Many different college basketball teams across the country have been playing exhibition games to get warmed up for the regular season, which begins very soon. On Sunday evening, Tennessee forward Dalton Knecht made his introduction to the college basketball world with a “vicious assault on the rim,” as On3’s Jamie Shaw so eloquently put it on Twitter.

Knecht went behind the back to elude a Michigan State defender and then posterized MSU’s Malik Hall.

Check out the epic jam below.

Dalton Knecht's dunk was 😉😉😉 pic.twitter.com/m9s8H6Pieo

— gmannVOLS (@gmannVOLS) October 29, 2023

Knecht was a huge land in the transfer portal this offseason and he made his presence felt immediately when the Vols played three exhibition games in Italy. He was the team’s leading scorer, averaging 16.3 points per game while shooting 52.9% from the field and 48% from three-point range.

In Sunday’s exhibition game against Michigan State, Knecht was dominant, pouring in 28 points and stuffing the stat sheet with seven rebounds and four assists in 34 minutes of work. The Volunteers won the game 89-88 in an impressive showing, even if it was an exhibition. Knecht also connected on 8 of his 16 field goal attempts, drilled 3 of 9 threes, and hit 9 of his 11 free throws.

Before joining the Tennessee Volunteers, Knecht was a dominant player at JUCO (Northeastern Junior College) and then later at the University of Northern Colorado for two seasons (2021-2023). He earned second team All-Big Sky honors in 2023, after pouring in 20.2 points per game and bringing home the Big Sky scoring title.

Knecht was one of the most complete players in the conference, finishing in the top ten in the Big Sky in the following stat categories in 2022-2023: minutes played (35.3 minutes per game), defensive rebounds per game (6.5 defensive rebounds per game), field goal percentage (47.9%), rebounding (7.2 rebounds per game), and free throw percentage (77.7%).

His senior year at Northern Colorado, he erupted for a career-high 34 points against Idaho on January 21st, 2023. As a junior with Northern Colorado, he averaged 8.9 points per game and grabbed 3.6 rebounds per outing.

During his time at JUCO (Northeast Junior College), Knecht brought home first team NJCAA All-American honors after guiding his team to the NJCAA D1 Tournament.

Tennessee will have one more exhibition game on Oct. 31st (Lenoir-Rhyne), before they begin their regular season games against Tennessee Tech on Monday, Nov. 6th.

Tip-off time for the TTU matchup is set for 6:30 PM EST and it will be televised on SEC Network+.