Several months ago, Chaz Lanier was the leading scorer of a North Florida Ospreys basketball team that finished 16-16 and lost all five of their games against power conference opponents by double-digit margins.
Lanier is now a fifth-year senior transfer guard at Tennessee, which is off to an 8-0 start and has led all eight contests by at least 26 points.
“It’s a little different being on the other side of the stick, but we’re just a real special team,” the 6-foot-5, 207-pounder from Nashville said last Tuesday night in a news conference after the Volunteers demolished Syracuse 96-70 as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge. “We’ve just come together so well since the summer and since we’ve met. Having been on the other side, it’s different.”
Life got even more different for Vols both new and old Monday, when they were ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. They will put that top billing to the test Tuesday evening (6:30 on ESPN) in New York City against Miami, which reached the 2023 NCAA tournament’s Final Four but is saddled this season with a 3-6 record after losing six straight games.
The possibility of Tennessee vaulting from No. 3 to No. 1 opened last Wednesday night, when No. 1 Kansas was routed by Creighton and No. 2 Auburn dropped a thriller at Duke. Auburn is No. 2 in the latest AP rankings, with Iowa State, Duke and Kentucky rounding out the top five.