Josiah-Jordan James talks decision to return to Tennessee, 'It's a special place to me'

Heavy roster turnover has become a common thing in the world of college basketball with the proliferation of the transfer portal. Tennessee improved its roster through the portal this spring, but the Vols’ might have helped themselves most of all by being able to welcome back Josiah-Jordan James for a fifth year.

James entered the NBA draft process following this past season, hiring an agent, moving to Miami to train and participating in several individual workouts for NBA teams.

Even though James had the option to return for a fifth year, most everyone around Tennessee’s program, including fans, assumed his career in Knoxville was over. That feeling was reinforced as the deadline for pulling out of the draft crept closer and closer with no indication from James that he was coming back.

The feeling that James was gone took on more sense of certainty after Rick Barnes and his coaching staff plundered the transfer portal to add three players to the roster. That move, along with Santiago Vescovi’s decision to return and the incoming group of freshmen signees meant that Tennessee was at the the limit of 13 scholarships.

Well, as it turns out, that wasn’t the deterrent for James that many thought it would be. Despite the fact that he would have to do it as a walk-on, James made the nearly last-minute decision to pull out of the draft and return to Tennessee.

It was a decision few people saw coming, though James says that in his mind, he always kept the door open on a possible return.

“When I went down to Miami to start my pre-draft stuff I was all into that and just focused on trying to get better and work on my game,” James said of his process. “I was fully invested in that but there wasn’t any point in time where I was like, ‘yeah, I’m 100% not coming back to Tennessee, or 100% staying in the draft. I was always just trying to take everything in stride.

“The decision didn’t really happen until the night before (the deadline to withdraw from the draft) or even the day of. I talked with my agent, my family, the coaches here, Coach Barnes, and started talking about the possibility of me staying. I tried to really weigh all the options and I feel like chose the best option for me.”

It’s an oft discussed topic in college athletics, but the timing of the transfer portal combined with that of players trying to go through the NBA draft process and get feedback is brutal for college coaches.

The recruiting of transfers is at its most frenzied just as players like James are trying to get themselves ready for the draft and gather information. Meanwhile, college coaches are trying to build their roster for the next season and are aggressively chasing potential transfers.

Given that the timing of the NBA draft (held in late June) isn’t likely to change, it’s a challenge that college coaches are going to have to continue to deal with.

James knew going into his process in April that it put Rick Barnes and his staff in a tough spot in terms of knowing how many scholarships they would have available.

“When I sat down with the coaches after the season for our exit meeting I told them they should go ahead and try to construct the team like I wasn’t coming back, because there was a good possibility that I wouldn’t be here. I let them know beforehand to go ahead and work to fill all the scholarships and roster holes,” James said.

“Coach Barnes was up front about me needing to do what was best for me first and foremost. He always let me know that there would be a spot for me here if I wanted to come back, but he wanted me to be all in and focused on being my best self.”

Of course, having a ‘spot’ and having a scholarship available are two different things.

The fact that James was willing to come back as a walk-on and pay his own way says a lot about his feelings for the program. There was definitely no guarantee that he would have been drafted, but multiple sources have indicated that he was a virtual lock to be signed to a two-way contract by an NBA team.

In the end, attempting to make the league via that path didn’t appeal to James as much as running it back one more time in Knoxville.

It’s move that wouldn’t have necessarily been impossible prior to NIL. However, the existence of NIL and the opportunities that it affords student-athletes certainly made James’ return more feasible.

“It definitely works in favor of the student-athletes,” James said of the impact NIL had on his decision. “NIL has been a great tool for us, not just financially but also getting out into the community, being able to meet new people and be connected to the community of Knoxville, and not just Knoxville because Tennessee is a nationally known brand.

“NIL definitely helped me out and my decision to come back.”

Another thing that definitely helped James decide to return are the relationships that he’s built at Tennessee.

The fact that his backcourt running-mate Santiago Vescovi is returning was obviously appealing to James.

We’ve still got our Volquest research team looking up the numbers, but James and Vescovi have got to be approaching some kind of record for games or minutes played together or something.

The duo will give the Vols one of the most veteran backcourts in the nation this coming season, and James made it clear that Vescovi was a part of his decision making process.

“I talked to Santi a good bit,” James said. “he was the fourth or fifth person I told after I made my decision to come back. He was back home (in Uruguay) but I texted him that I was coming back. He was pretty ecstatic and I leaned on him a lot throughout the whole process.

“It’s (our relationship) 100% special. Santi is my right-hand man. He’s somebody that I’ve leaned on for the last four years. He’s someone that’s going to be a lifelong friend of mine outside of the game of basketball. He’s just a great guy. He’s one of a kind. He’s special in his own way and I’m just happy that I get to do it all again with him for one more year.”

The only other person in the program that James has had a longer relationship with than Vescovi is Barnes himself. It’s a relationship that’s grown into something beyond just player/coach over the years that the two have known each other, going back to James’ high school days.

Barnes has made no secret of the fact that he values James’ opinion on team matters, as he generally does with trusted veterans. That trust is a two way street and James makes no secret of the fact that his relationship with Barnes was a large factor in his decision to return.

“Relationships have always been important to me since I was young. My mom always told me that family is first and then the people you associate yourself with outside of family are really important too,” James said. “My relationship with Coach Barnes was really important in my decision.

“He and I have been through a lot together. There were times were he probably didn’t like me much, and I know there’s times I didn’t like him a lot. But every relationship has its ups and downs. I feel like me and Coach Barnes now know each other so well and I know that we both want what’s best for each other.”

Five years ago, when James arrived on campus as a five star prospect, a McDonald’s All-American and a member of Team USA’s gold medal winning U-19 team he admittedly never envisioned himself being in this position, as a fifth year senior.

He, and plenty of others, thought that James would maybe be a two year player in college, at most, before heading to the league.

Obviously, things haven’t worked out that way, but if you think James is bitter, you don’t know the even-keeled young man. It’s not necessarily been easy—he’s battled a myriad of injuries along the way during his time in Knoxville—but he’s at peace with where he is now as he is about to become probably the most impactful walk-on in all of college basketball as a fifth-year senior.

“Coming into college I was really naive and I had really high goals and expectations. Those goals are still the same, but I have a real understanding that everybody’s path is different,” James said.

“My time at Tennessee has been amazing, but it hasn’t always been the easiest path. I’ve dealt with a lot of injuries and adversity. But I’m a firm believer in everything happening for a reason. I feel like if I just stay the course and take care of the things that I can control then everything will work out in the end.”

‘Working out’ at this point means that James is back on Tennessee’s campus this summer. He’s getting back into the groove of offseason workouts. He’s starting on his masters degree after graduating with a degree in communications this past year.

James seems completely at peace with his decision and it goes without saying that his return should be a big boost for a team that already looked to be pretty solid before his decision to come back.

This next observation isn’t meant to throw shade on any players who reached different decisions, but for James, it was always either return to Tennessee or try to make a go of it in the NBA.

The thought of pulling out of the draft, staying in the transfer portal and searching for a home other than Knoxville never really entered his mind.

“No, I never really thought about going anywhere else. Everybody has their own opinion. Some people would come up and have suggestions for me, but me personally I never would have thought about that because Tennessee is such a special place to me,” James said.

“My mom always told me when I was young that once you start something you have to see it through. That’s no knock on people that want to find a better situation or better place. I just feel like this is the best place for me. I made a commitment to the university, a commitment to Coach Barnes and if I was coming back to college I wanted to see that through here.”

Basketball season is a long way off, but the Vols’ prospects for 2023-24 are probably getting a bigger bump from a walk-on than any other program in the country.