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Tennessee Basketball adds French guard Clarence Massamba to 2025 class

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•04/30/25•

GrantRamey

Clarence Massamba, AS Monaco
Clarence Massamba, AS Monaco

Tennessee Basketball has added another new name to its 2025 class: French guard Clarence Massamba. The 6-foot-5 prospect committed to the Vols out of AS Monaco Basket, the Monaco-based professional basketball club.

Massamba during the 2024-25 international season averaged 9.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game, playing mostly for Espies Monaco, AS Monaco’s U21 team. He shot 44.6% from the field and 34.1% from the 3-point line. 

Tennessee has signed four prep prospects in its 2025 recruiting class in five-star Nate Ament, a consensus top-five player in the class, as well as four-star guard Amari Evans, four-star center Dewayne Brown and three-star point guard Troy Henderson.

The Vols so far have added three players from the NCAA Transfer Portal in Louisiana Tech guard Amaree Abram, who committed to and signed with Tennessee on Tuesday, as well as Maryland point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Vanderbilt power forward Jaylen Carey.

Tennessee still has roster spots to fill for 2025-26

Tennessee still has two roster spots to fill after the addition of Massamba. The Vols return just four scholarship players (Felix Okpara, Cade Phillips, JP Estrella and Bishop Boswell) after losing six seniors (Zakai Zeigler, Jordan Gainey, Chaz Lanier, Jahmai Mashack, Igor Milicic Jr. and Darlinstone Dubar).

The 6-foot-9, 185-pound Ament committed to Tennessee last Sunday and signed with the Vols on Monday, after picking the Vols over Duke, Kentucky, Louisville and Arkansas. 

 He’s the No. 3 overall player in the On3 ratings and is the highest-ranked prospect to sign with Tennessee during the recruiting rankings era.

Evans, the 6-foot-5, 204-pound prospect out of Pittsburgh, is ranked No. 68 nationally, No. 20 at shooting guard and No. 7 in the state of Georgia, where he played in the Overtime Elite League in Atlanta. 

The 6-foot-9, 235-pound Brown, out of Hoover, Ala., is ranked No. 100 overall. He’s the No. 10 center in the class and the No. 1 prospect in the state of Alabama. 

Henderson, who committed to Tennessee in March and signed last week, is ranked No. 248 overall. He’s the No. 34 point guard in the class and the No. 13 player in the state of Virginia.

Ja’Kobi Henderson ranked No. 10 in On3 Transfer Portal Rankings

Gillespie started all 36 games at Maryland this season, averaging 14.7 points and 4.8 assists in 31.6 minutes per game while shooting 45.3% from the floor and 40.7% from the 3-point line, where he made 87 of 214 attempts. 

He’s a Greeneville, Tenn. native, who started his college basketball career at Belmont, averaging 17.2 points, 4.2 assists and 2.2 steals in 31.4 minutes per game as a sophomore at Belmont in 2023-24.

Carey, the 6-foot-8, 245-pound sophomore, averaged 8.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in 20.2 minutes per game at Vanderbilt this season. 

Abram, a former top-100 prospect and four-star recruit who made previous stops at Ole Miss and Georgia Tech, averaged 12.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists at Louisiana Tech last season, shooting 42.2% from the field and 37.3% from the 3-point line. He averaged 32.1 minutes per game while starting all 32 games. 

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