Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes brings in Nate Ament whose dynamic abilities will allow him to play at any of the five positions. (Photo Courtesy of Elliott Walker/Tennessee Athletics).

Tennessee Vols (30-8, 12-6, 4th/SEC)                                                                                                                                       2024-25 NCAAT: Elite Eight, Lost to Houston                                                                                                                       Head Coach: Rick Barnes (836-423, 38 seasons; 232-109, 10 seasons at Tennessee)

Barnes is a Wide Receiver – In the era of the transfer portal and the NIL, if a coach wins the proverbial coin toss, receiving is ahead of waiting until the “second half” for your opportunity.

Coach Rick Barnes has built Tennessee into a perennial winner in his tenure as his accumulatng talent shows. Barnes brings guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie back into Tennessee after he spent last season at Maryland where he was second in scoring at 14.7 ppg and he shot 40.7 percent from three while leading the Vols in assists at 4.8 per outing.

Gillespie was a key contributor for the Belmont Bruins in his first two seasons.

Point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie will be a key playmaker as well as a long range marksman with the three-ball.  Photo By Elliot Walker/Tenneseee Athletics

“We always had our eyes on Ja’Kobi,” Barnes commented. “The year he left Belmont to go to Maryland, with Zakai (Zeigler) coming back, it was a really hard sell for us to try to convince him.”

Barnes capitalizes the competitiveness of both Gillespie and Zeigler, but he notes that they both play guard with differences.

“We’re excited Ja’Kobi has come in,” Barnes explained. “His durability is very similar to Zakai. He never wants to take himself out. He wants to go every rep in practice.”

Retrieving the Posts: The experience of 6-11 center Felix Okpara and 6-9 power forward Cade Phillips will be a will be major qulaities for the Volunteers in the paint.

Okpara was third in the SEC with 64 blocks and his length makes him a strong defender. He is a threat in the paint because his athletic ability allows him to be a factor on the offensive glass as well as being a consummate alley-oop threat on lob passes from the perimeter.

“We have four, if not five, front court players,” explained Okpara. “I think Rick Barnes touched on it a little bit. Just being able to pull a defender, you know different size, different players, and having different playstyles.”

Phillips’ toughness on offense allows him to vary his moves on the boxes and in the lane. In addition, he worked on his outside shot which obviously would make him an even tougher cover.

“I think the versatility is that Cade can swing out and play some perimeter, too, because of his ability to guard.,” commented Barnes. “Getting J.P. (Estrella) back. We’re still working him back full speed. We needed that the last couple years. Felix has improved. I think his confidence, his leadership, he’s taken that to a different level.”

Future Hall of Famer Rick Barnes has put together excellent recruiting classes in his 11 years at Tennessee. He featured the same skill at Texas, Clemson, Providence, and George Mason. Photo By Elliot Walker/Tennessee Athletics

Interestingly, power forward Jaylen Carey came to Knoxville from Vanderbilt where he had a double-double against the Vols last season.

Freshman Impact: As we know, Barnes has been a top recruiter in all of his stops and once again, he highlighted that when Nate Ament came to Tennessee. Ament was rated in the top five recruits as incoming freshman, and at 6-9, 190, Ament can play any of the five positions. 

The versatility of the Manasses, Va., native will cause different defensive gameplans that will allow his teammates to be able to be versatile number one options in the Vols’ offense.

“Nate is playing a different position than he ever really played,” said Branes. “We kept him exclusively on the outside right now because of our front line depth.”

TV Analyst? Cade Phillips can nail the three as well as operate inside on offense. He comes to the defensive end as a solid defender and rebounder.

Phillips summarized his thoughts on this year’s Volunteers.

“The team we have is a lot of size and skill, and you know we have 100 different lineups we could throw out there,” said Phillips. “I think that’s been the coolest part, just kind of seeing how many different things we can throw out with the versatility.”

 

 

 

 

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