Tennessee’s last three men’s basketball teams advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament with a leading scorer who was a senior obtained through the NCAA transfer portal.
Only time will tell whether history repeats itself yet again.
Rick Barnes and the Volunteers on Wednesday afternoon received a commitment from former Belmont University guard Tyler Lundblade, who will play one season in Knoxville as a graduate transfer. The 6-foot-5, 195-pounder from Dallas was the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year this season after averaging 15.6 points per game and leading the Bruins to a 26-6 record.
“The opportunity to play for Coach Barnes and the University of Tennessee in the SEC is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Lundblade told 247Sports.com. “I could not have asked for a better last chapter to my college career.”
Belmont won the MVC’s regular-season title before getting upset by ninth-seeded Drake in the MVC tournament quarterfinals.
Lundblade began his college career at SMU in 2021-22, redshirting that season, and then transferred to TCU for his next two seasons, receiving a medical redshirt in one of them. He averaged 12.4 points at Belmont during the 2024-25 season, when he shot a staggering 48.1% from 3-point range.
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His average from behind the arc dipped to 40.6% this season, but his 93.4% success rate at the free-throw line leads the nation.
Barnes has repeatedly hit the sharp-shooting jackpot via the portal, acquiring Northern Colorado’s Dalton Knecht, North Florida’s Chaz Lanier and Maryland’s Ja’Kobi Gillespie. Knecht averaged 21.7 points per game during the 2023-24 season, while Lanier averaged 18.0 points in 2024-25 and Gillespie was at 18.4 points this season.
Knecht was the Southeastern Conference player of the year, while Gillespie became the first in SEC history to surpass 100 3-pointers and 200 assists in a single season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.