Tennessee Basketball Coach Rick Barnes Talks On The Big Orange Caravan

Rick Barnes started his media availability Tuesday night at Tennessee’s Big Orange Caravan stop in Nashville with an understatement. When asked about the last month for the Vols, he described it as “eventful.”

“Because of where we are today and with everything,” Barnes said.

He was referencing the NCAA Transfer Portal and the chaos it creates across all of college athletics. It just so happens that Tennessee Basketball was hit hard with changes this time around. 

On top of losing three fifth-year seniors — Dalton Knecht, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi — the Vols lost four players to the transfer portal, leaving six of the 13 scholarships open for next season.

The first move was redshirt freshman guard Freddie Dilione on April 4, four days after the season ended with the Elite Eight loss to Purdue. Redshirt freshman wing DJ Jefferson was next, on April 8, starting a run of three departures in three days. Sophomore power forward Tobe Awaka left the next day, followed by junior center Jonas Aidoo. 

Tennessee has added three players from the NCAA Transfer Portal

Tennessee has since added three transfers from the portal. First was Hofstra wing Darlinstone Dubar, followed by 6-foot-11 Ohio State center Felix Okpara and 6-foot-10 Charlotte forward Igor Milicic Jr. 

The Vols still have three open scholarship spots on next season’s roster, with the three transfer additions joined by four-star point guard Bishop Boswell, the Charlotte, N.C., prep prospect who signed in November. 

“We do think we’re getting closer,” Barnes said Tuesday of completing the new-look roster. “But we’ve been very selective. My coaches, (I) have a great deal of credit for their intel in terms of how they’ve gone about it, knowing what we would like and what we think works for us. And we’re really excited about the ones that we’ve gotten.”

On Wednesday, during the Big Orange Caravan stop in Chattanooga, Barnes was asked again about the transfer portal era of college athletics.

In college basketball specifically, with one transfer portal window for players, the moves are constant in April, before the portal closes on May 1. As soon as one March Madness is over, the next month-long madness kicks in. 

“It is because when you come out of the season and you realize what lies ahead,” Barnes said. “It’s the anticipation of knowing that you really come to expect the unexpected and until that final day where the portal closes, you don’t know what’s going to happen.

“Because we realize there’s a lot of people coming at these athletes in different ways. With that said, it’s maybe the most stressful time of the year not knowing what’s going to happen.”

Rick Barnes: ‘When it breaks, you got to be ready to try and improve yourself’

Tennessee’s outgoing players have all landed at new schools. Dilione signed with Penn State, Jefferson went to Longwood and Awaka is now at Arizona. But it was Aidoo — he committed to and signed with Arkansas on Monday — who caught the Vols off guard. 

Barnes two weeks ago described losing his All-SEC center, who had a breakout junior season, as an unexpected change of course. 

“Because he had told everybody he was fine,” Barnes said at the time.

Now, all Barnes can do is adapt to the game’s move toward free agency and make his own moves.

“We’re already expecting the unexpected,” Barnes said. “So we’re working it in the right way in terms of you’re always hearing this or that. You try to stay ahead of everything as much as you can, but the fact is when it breaks, you got to be ready to try and improve yourself.”