Tennessee guard Freddie Dilione plans to enter NCAA Transfer Portal

The Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball team put together an impressive run in this year’s March Madness tournament. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, as the Volunteers were knocked out in the Elite 8 round by the Purdue Boilermakers. On Thursday, Tennessee received another punch to the gut as one of their promising young guards decided to enter into the transfer portal.

According to On3’s Tennessee fan site Volquest, Volunteers’ redshirt freshman guard Freddie Dilione plans to enter his name into the NCAA transfer portal, and we’ll be looking for a new home for the 2024-25 season.

After redshirting his freshman season and 2022-23, Dilione saw some action on the court at Tennessee this year. However, his playing time was sparingly at best. Dilione played in just 18 games this season and did not register a single start while averaging just 5.2 minutes of playing time. He would end the year averaging just 1.7 points per contest while shooting 52 percent from the field.

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Dilione played high school basketball at the Word Of God Christian Academy in Fayetteville, NC, where he was a four-star prospect. According to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, he was the No. 44 overall recruit in the 2022 cycle. Dilione also ranked third in the nation at point guard and was the top recruit to come out of the state of North Carolina in his cycle.

Rick Barnes admits challenge in free throw discrepancy for Tennessee against Purdue

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes led the Volunteers to the Elite Eight this season. It was the furthest he’d taken Tennessee during his time in Knoxville and it was just the second time the program ever made it that far in the NCAA Tournament. However, that run ended at the hands of the Purdue Boilermakers.

Following the game, Barnes spoke about the officiating in Tennessee’s Elite Eight loss. In particular, he admitted that dealing with Tennessee’s free-throw discrepancy against Purdue was a challenge.

“It’s hard,” Rick Barnes said. “I can go back, and we can all have what we feel about it. I’ve been doing this a long time. I was talking earlier about it. There’s different ways you can foul in this game. There’s different ways you can get fouled.”