How Rick Barnes reacted to Jonas Aidoo transfer from Tennessee to Arkansas

CHATTANOOGA – Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes said he loves Jonas Aidoo but he hurts that he left the Vols and transferred to Arkansas.

“Honestly, I don’t want to sound crass about it, but you move on,” Barnes said at the Big Orange Caravan at the Chattanooga Convention Center on Wednesday. “When you lose somebody, your mindset has to be, ‘Well, maybe we can improve somewhere.’

“But we believe in the University of Tennessee. We know this: There’s a lot of people who want to play for us.”

Aidoo, a 6-foot-11 forward, entered the transfer portal after an All-SEC season on UT’s Elite Eight team. On Monday, he committed to transferring to Arkansas, where he’ll play for new coach John Calipari.

Barnes said there were no hard feelings toward Aidoo or any player that left UT.

“We obviously have great love and respect for Jonas,” Barnes said. “We’ve watched him grow in our program. But again, he felt like he may want to play a different style, a different way.”

The 2024-25 SEC schedule hasn’t been released, but Arkansas and Tennessee are expected to play each other. Of course, Calipari is familiar with Aidoo from his time at Kentucky.

Rick Barnes: ‘It hurts. It always does.’

Aidoo was among four UT players that entered the portal. Redshirt freshman guard Freddie Dilione transferred to Penn State. Redshirt freshman guard D.J. Jefferson transferred to Longwood. And on Monday, sophomore forward Tobe Awaka committed to transfer to Arizona.

“Throughout my years in coaching, you have to be willing to adapt,” Barnes said. “But it hurts. It always does when you feel like you’ve really worked hard with a young person, and you get them to a point.

“But you also understand it. Believe me, we totally understand it.”

UT also has added players from the portal. It got 6-11 forward Felix Okpara from Ohio State, 6-10 forward Igor Milicic from Charlotte and 6-8 guard Darlinstone Dubar from Hofstra. And the Vols aren’t done reloading their roster.

What Barnes likes about Felix Okpara, the Vols’ newest big man

Barnes was quick to praise Okpara, one of the replacements for Aidoo and Awaka.

And this Big Orange Caravan stop was well suited for that because Okpara played nearby at Hamilton Heights in Chattanooga before spending his final prep year at Link Academy in Branson, Missouri.

“(Okpara) brings us a physicality that we love to have, that we haven’t consistently had there,” Barnes said. “With what we’ve seen and the way we evaluated him, I think he’s got some untapped ability offensively.

“He runs. He’s strong. And being around him, he’s impressed me with the fact that he’s got a real competitive edge about him. That’s going to fit in well with our guys.”

Okpara averaged 5.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 70 games in two seasons at Ohio State. He started 45 games and entrenched himself as the starting forward as a sophomore, when averaged 6.6 points and 6.4 rebounds while blocking 82 shots.

“He’s like a lot of guys his size,” Barnes said. “He’s just kind of scratching the surface in terms of where he can be. But he showed us he can do a lot. We’re going to try get him to do more than maybe he thinks he can.”

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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