Tennessee now has as many men’s basketball acquisitions through the NCAA transfer portal as it does departures.
Braedan Lue, a 6-foot-9, 235-pound forward from Douglasville, Georgia, committed Friday to Tennessee through social media. Lue was a Kennesaw State sophomore this past season, averaging 10.9 points and 5.3 rebounds, so he has two seasons of eligibility remaining.
He also tallied a team-high 50 blocks and was a member of Conference USA’s all-defensive team.
Lue is Tennessee’s sixth portal addition since its 25-12 season ended with an NCAA tournament Elite Eight loss to eventual national champion Michigan. He joins guards Dai Dai Ames (California), Jalen Haralson (Notre Dame), Terrence Hill Jr. (VCU) and Tyler Lundblade (Belmont), and center Miles Rubin (Loyola of Chicago).
Before those additions, the Volunteers had lost guards Bishop Boswell, Amari Evans and Clarence Massamba, and forwards Jaylen Carey, J.P. Estrella and Cade Phillips to the portal.
Lue visited Knoxville on Wednesday and Thursday. Vols coach Rick Barnes is 6-for-6 in this portal cycle when it comes to visitors committing, and Tennessee’s transfer class is currently ranked fourth nationally by 247Sports.com behind Louisville, Texas and Indiana.
“I’ve said it before, but I think we’ve got the most experienced, best staffs in the country,” Barnes said during Thursday afternoon’s press conference. “They’re the reason we’ve had success with these guys coming on campus here. Once you get them here, so many support people help us with our visits, but I’ve said it to you many times before — we show it just like it is.
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“We often say, ‘Don’t get recruited. We don’t want to recruit you. We just want to show you what we got, and if it’s good enough and what you want, we want you to be here, or you wouldn’t be here.’ The guys we brought on campus, we knew that we wanted them.”
Tennessee currently has 12 players, with four of them — DeWayne Brown II, Lue, Rubin and prep signee Chris Washington Jr. — standing 6-8 or taller.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.