Rick Barnes on facing Jonas Aidoo: 'He's there, we're here and it's about competition now'

Of Tennessee Basketball’s four losses to the NCAA Transfer Portal last April, the most surprising was center Jonas Aidoo. Note even head coach Rick Barnes saw see it coming.

“Because he had told everybody he was fine,” Barnes said at the time.

Now Aidoo is set to make his return to Knoxville, with No. 23 Arkansas (11-2) opening SEC play at No. 1 Tennessee (13-0) on Saturday at Food City Center.

Before practice Friday morning, Barnes downplayed the reunion storyline. After all, in the transfer portal age, they’re going to become much more common.

“We appreciate what Jonas did from while he was here,” Barnes said, “but you all know the landscape of where we are in intercollegiate athletics. And you’re going to see more of that, obviously, as time goes on, when guys leave and go other places for various reasons sometimes.

“But Jonas, really, we loved him when he was here, what he did and loved his growth. But he’s there, we’re here and it’s about competition now.”

Jonas Aidoo at Tennessee last season: 11.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.8 blocks per game

Aidoo was coming off a breakout junior season at Tennessee, named Second Team All-SEC and made the SEC’s All-Defensive team. He averaged career-highs in scoring (11.4 points per game), rebounding (7.3), defensive rebounds (4.5), offensive rebounds (2.8), blocks (1.8), steals (0.7) and minutes (25.4). He was fourth in the SEC in rebounding and third in the league in blocked shots. 

Aidoo’s regular-season numbers didn’t translate in the postseason. In one game in the SEC Tournament and four in the NCAA Tournament, Aidoo totaled 35 points and 26 rebounds. 

He scored 15 points in the win over Saint Peter’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and had 11 against Texas in the second round. He had just four points against Creighton in the Sweet 16 and was scoreless in 10 minutes in the Elite Eight loss to Purdue, going a combined 2-for-12 from the field in the second weekend of the tournament. 

Aidoo signed with Tennessee as a four-star prospect in the 2021 class, ranked No. 39 overall. He was the No. 6 center in the country and the No. 1 player in the state of North Carolina.

He was previously committed to Marquette, where Tennessee associate head coach Justin Gainey spent the 2020-21 season before being hired by the Vols. 

Aidoo played in 19 games as a freshman in 2021-22, averaging 2.1 points and 2.2 rebounds in 7.8 minutes per game off the bench. He started nine times in 35 games as a sophomore, jumping up to 5.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. 

Transferring after he starred for the Vols as a junior — Aidoo initially announced he was entering his name in the NBA Draft while entering the NCAA Transfer Portal, before committing to Arkansas three weeks later — wasn’t what Barnes was expecting.

“We have guys that literally tell us, hey, they love it, they’re here,” Barnes said back in April. “Then they come in a day later and they’ve talked to someone else and they’re gone.” 

“Honestly,” Barnes said during a Big Orange Caravan stop in May, “I don’t want to sound crass about it, but you move on. When you lose somebody, your mindset has to be, ‘Well, maybe we can improve somewhere.’”

Vols added three starters out of NCAA Transfer Portal, including leading scorer and leading rebounder

After losing Aidoo, sophomore power forward Tobe Awake and redshirt freshmen guards Freddie Dilione V and DJ Jefferson to the portal, Barnes and his staff went into the portal to add shooting guard Chaz Lanier (North Florida), stretch forward Igor Milicic (Charlotte), center Felix Okpara (Ohio State) and wing Darlinstone Dubar (Hofstra).

Okpara is Tennessee’s starting center, replacing Aidoo with 6.8 points and 6.0 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game. Lanier is the team’s leading scorer at 19.6 points per game and is third nationally in 3-pointers made per game, at 3.9. Milicic is averaging 10.7 points while leading the Vols in rebounding at 8.2 per game.

Aidoo has played in 10 of the 13 Arkansas games so far this season after dealing with an injury. He is averaging 6.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in 16.0 minutes per game, splitting time at center with Zvonimir Ivisic.

“Jonas has had to deal with an injury, obviously,” Barnes said, “so he hasn’t probably been out there as much as that I think they would probably like to have him. But I see him try to do some of the same things that, that we were trying to do with him.”