Rick Barnes on Tennessee's open roster spots: 'There's a couple guys out there that will fit us'
The biggest name left on the board for Tennessee Basketball is Chaz Lanier, the North Florida transfer guard who is going through the NBA Draft process and competed in the G League Elite Camp over the weekend in Chicago.
Still, though, there’s other work to be done. Whether or not the Vols land Lanier, they still find themselves in the second week of May with three open scholarship spots on the 2024-25 roster.
Rick Barnes and his staff will likely carry one open roster spot into the summer. Which direction Tennessee goes with the other scholarship remains to be seen.
“I always think there’s somebody out there,” Barnes said last week during the Big Orange Caravan, “and I’ve said my whole career, there’s enough players for everybody. You just need to find the ones that fit you and we still think there’s a couple guys out there that will fit us.”
‘There’s some high school players that are going to be overlooked’
Those fits could be found in the NCAA Transfer Portal or on the recruiting trail, with any prep prospects that have not yet committed to other schools.
Late additions to recruiting classes have worked well for Barnes in recent years. Tennessee signed point guard Zakai Zeigler late in August 2021. Tobe Awaka was a July 1 signing back in 2022.
Now, in the transfer portal era, finding late adds from prep prospects could become more common.
“I do think the portal right now is probably where high school players are probably overlooked a little bit more,” Barnes said. “There’s some schools now that are strictly going to go forward (using the portal) and because of that, that means there’s high school players that are going to be overlooked and we’re not going do that.
“We’ll keep our eye there and we always will, but we’re in a different era.”
Tennessee has filled three of six open scholarship spots on 2024-25 roster
The Vols have been in a spot the last six weeks that they don’t plan to be in often. They lost three fifth-year seniors from last season’s roster in Dalton Knecht, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi.
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They lost four players to the NCAA Transfer Portal in redshirt freshmen DJ Jefferson and Freddie Dilione as well as junior center Jonas Aidoo and Awaka.
That left six open spots to fill on the roster. Three spots have been filled so far through the portal, with the additions of Hofstra wing Darlinstone Dubar, Ohio State center Felix Okpara and Charlotte forward Igor Milicic Jr.
“We knew we were going to lose some guys,” Barnes said. “We obviously lost two (Aidoo and Awaka) that we didn’t think we would lose, but that happens and we’re no different than anybody else. I think probably most teams were surprised at something, maybe some guys leaving.”
But Barnes, still with work to do on the 2024-25 roster, believes his team can be better next season, despite the departures.
“You have to have the attitude that when you lose guys, whether it’s through graduation, whatever, this gives us an opportunity to try to get better,” Barnes said, “and we feel like we’ve done that.”
