It’s no secret that the Tennessee men’s basketball program signed an abundance of talent several weeks ago through the NCAA transfer portal, with ESPN ranking its portal class No. 1 nationally.
It’s also no secret that most of the touted Volunteers arrivals play out on the perimeter, which is providing their new post players some early motivation.
“I feel like we have an underrated frontcourt,” senior center and Loyola of Chicago transfer Miles Rubin said this past week in a press conference. “I feel like a lot of people are counting us out. People don’t think we have one of the top frontcourts in this conference, but I feel like we can prove them wrong and show them we have one of the best.
“We just work harder than a lot of people. If we out-work everybody, we can be one of the best.”
Tennessee’s four primary post players later this year are expected to be the 6-10, 220-pound Rubin, sophomore DeWayne Brown II (6-8, 251), junior and Kennesaw State transfer Braedan Lue (6-9, 235) and freshman Chris Washington Jr. (6-9, 200).
The Vols were taller this past season with Felix Okpara and J.P. Estrella, who were each listed at 6-11, and with the versatile Nate Ament at 6-10. Tennessee was also broader inside with Brown and the 6-8, 267-pound Jaylen Carey, who joined the Vols from Vanderbilt and then departed the Vols for Missouri.
“We’re long in a different way this year,” coach Rick Barnes said of his 12th Vols squad. “We’re very long on the perimeter and have great length out there. Our front guys may not be as tall, but they’ve got good length. They’ve got quickness. They’re learning a new system, and their effort has been there. We haven’t had to talk about going hard with any of those guys.
“We’ve been impressed by their energy level, and their conditioning has been good. The post guys have probably progressed in this last week and a half more so than they did earlier.”
Much has been made about the scoring potential with Tennessee’s new perimeter players, with Juke Harris having averaged 21.4 points per game last season at Wake Forest, Dai Dai Ames 16.9 at California, Jalen Haralson 16.2 at Notre Dame, Tyler Lundblade 15.6 at Belmont and Terrence Hill Jr. 15.0 at VCU. Harris and Haralson are each 6-7, while Lundblade is 6-5.
Rubin averaged 11.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks last season at Loyola, and he is hoping to have the same NBA draft experience next June that Okpara had this past week.
“My game resembles his a lot,” Rubin said, “and if he can get drafted here, I feel like I can get drafted.”
Lue averaged 10.9 points and 5.3 rebounds last season at Kennesaw State, while Brown returns after averaging 4.8 points and 3.6 boards.
“We compete and play hard,” Lue said. “People might say that we’re undersized or whatever, but if we play hard, that will lead us through everything no matter what.”
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Playing hard, especially on the defensive end, has been a requirement for Barnes-coached teams in Knoxville. Last year’s 25-12 collection that earned the program’s third consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight was constructed to dominate inside, with the Vols finishing fourth nationally in rebounding and second in offensive rebounding.
The two previous teams were built on the defensive tenacity of Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack and an effective shooting guard – Dalton Knecht in 2023-24 and Chaz Lanier in 2024-25 – and it’s obvious after four weeks of summer practice that the 2026-27 Vols will form their own identity.
“This is the most number of ball-handlers we’ve had,” Barnes said. “I could show you film where we’ve had six or seven different guys get a rebound and run the break and get the ball down the floor. We like that a lot.”
Said Rubin: “This feels like an AAU team. Everybody comes from a different area, but we all want to come together and win big here. We want to win a national championship. That’s the goal.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.