Tennessee Volunteers Basketball

Tennessee freshman Jaden Springer is moving to the NBA after announcing his intention to enter the draft Monday. 

https://twitter.com/jadenspringer11/status/1376650099275759616

The 18-year-old was one of the top combo guard recruits in the country last year, so his decision isn't too much of a surprise. Before he averaged 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists with the Volunteers, 247Sports ranked him the No. 16 player overall in the class of 2020.

He backed that up with a freshman year strong enough to test his standing as a pro after helping Tennessee reach the NCAA tournament—ultimately falling to Oregon State in the First Round.

Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman projected him as his No. 16 overall pick in February: 

"Though Springer skeptics question his athleticism and playmaking, his scoring efficiency (49.0 field-goal percentage), shooting (15-of-32 on three-pointers), passing IQ, defense and age (18) should be enough for a mid-first-round team to look past his limited transition offense and assist numbers."

Sam Vecenie of The Athletic was more skeptical, ranking him at No. 22 on his big board in January, but he noted Springer would benefit from a second year in college:

"Unlike a lot of freshmen across college hoops this year, Springer has been an efficient decision-maker who generally does the right thing out on the floor, moves well without the ball and doesn't play like a goofball. A couple of worries here in terms of translation that he'll need to work through, though. First, his jumper is very mechanical and robotic. He really needs to set before shooting it. There isn't much here yet in terms of movement shooting. Second, he has to do everything off two feet now. If he's dribble driving, it's a jump stop into a two-foot floater or a two-foot load leap into a finish at the rim." 

Because he is signing with an agent, Springer will not retain his NCAA eligibility and cannot return to school. The NCAA allows players to declare for the combine and receive feedback from pro scouts without losing their college eligibility as long as they don't hire representation. 

Gonzaga and Baylor have stood atop the men's college basketball hierarchy in 2020-21, but there's no shame in being a second-tier team. Those two are still viewed as likely candidates to have an extended stay in the NCAA tournament, and Tennessee looked like it deserved that billing early this season.

While the Volunteers lagged a bit on the scoring end, they showed year-to-year improvement in three-point shooting and offensive rebounding. That's a strong combination for a defense-led team.

And that unit seemed incredible.

Led by Yves Pons—the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year—and 5-star freshman Keon Johnson, the Vols locked up opponents through 11 games. They ceded only a 30.3 percent three-point clip while forcing 16.7 turnovers per game. That strength carried Tennessee to a 10-1 record and No. 6 ranking in the AP Top 25.

Since that promising start, however, the Vols have dropped five of their 11 games and plummeted to 25th in the poll.

Tennessee is awfully inconsistent on the perimeter and now committing a bunch of turnovers. The Vols' half-court offense can be painful to watch. The defense has lapses too, but it can't be expected to prop up a mediocre scoring attack all season.

Optimism for the second Elite Eight run—or even first Final Four trip—in program history has steadily faded. Instead, Tennessee has become a vulnerable team and is increasingly unlikely to navigate the first weekend of March Madness.

Maybe not even its first game.

Yes, the defense—which ranks third nationally, per KenPom.com—has earned a high level of respect. If the bracket falls nicely, Rick Barnes' team can still have a successful NCAA tournament. How exactly you define success for this roster is subjective, but let's consider it a Sweet 16 trip.

That qualifier must be granted; we don't know the bracket, after all. The wrong matchup, though, could be devastating.

Much of the Volunteers' scoring issues can be attributed to shot selection. They attempt two-point jumpers at the 21st-highest rate in the country, according to Hoop-Math.com, but convert just 38.3 percent of them. That is 213rd out of 347 teams.

If they're not consistently hitting mid-range shots, the perimeter isn't making up for it. Tennessee's 34.3 long-range clip is 152nd in the nation. Victor Bailey Jr. and Santiago Vescovi are decent options but regularly have 1-of-4 kind of nights.

Any lingering optimist can point to a 63.2 clip in shots at the rim, and that's a quality rate!

But those attempts account for just 30.5 percent of Tennessee's total shots, which ranks 308th nationally, and makes this a circular discussion. The Vols aren't shooting at the rim enough, yet it's the only thing they do well. They shoot a bunch of two-point jumpers and are pretty bad at them.

Turnovers aren't helping, either. They averaged 9.6 giveaways in the first 11 games but are up to 13.8 in the last 11 contests. Worst of all, as Barnes noted following a recent win over Vanderbilt, many of the turnovers are self-inflicted errors.

#Vols coach Rick Barnes: We turned it over way too many times tonight, and most of those turnovers had nothing to do with [Vandy] and everything to do with us.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) February 25, 2021

Fixing those problems isn't as simple as saying, "shoot closer more often." The offense is used to operating in this inefficient fashion, and changing that will not happen overnight. Pivoting the offense from running through 6'9" forward John Fulkerson to the backcourt is a good start, but it might be too late.

At this point of the year, Tennessee doesn't have time to spare. The last two games are against Auburn and Florida, then the SEC tournament looms the second week of March. The Vols might be limited to three or four games before March Madness.

Simply put, it's unwise to expect dramatic improvements.

Tennessee is pegged as No. 5 seed—the dreaded No. 5 vs. 12 game—in the NCAA field, per Bracket Matrix. Ten of the last 12 NCAA tourneys have included at least one 5 vs. 12 upset. And if the Vols move anywhere, given their small remaining schedule, it's probably down. The No. 11 upset of a No. 6 is even more popular.

As the Volunteers search for late fixes, it's become difficult to not consider them a prime candidate to join that group.

           

Recruiting information via 247Sports. Statistics courtesy of KenPom.com or Sports Reference, unless otherwise noted. Follow Bleacher Report writer David Kenyon on Twitter @Kenyon19_BR.

The Tennessee Volunteers men's basketball team has paused all basketball activities after head coach Rick Barnes and a number of other members in the program tested positive for COVID-19, per ESPN's Jeff Borzello. 

Per that report, "the positive tests were conducted Sunday afternoon, and the entire program is getting retested today. Barnes has entered isolation protocol following his positive test."

Tennessee also cancelled games against Charlotte and VCU after the positive tests.

The 66-year-old Barnes is the latest coach to test positive for the coronavirus, following Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, Ole Miss' Kermit Davis, Washington State's Kyle Smith and Baylor's Scott Drew. With the recent surge of cases around the United States, there is growing momentum for the NCAA to push back the start of the season.

I’ll say it again, to anyone who will listen, push the season back to March, and then have May Madness. Give the Vaccine a chance. In the best interest of all involved!

— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) November 23, 2020

We’re not even at 1 p.m. ET and we’ve had Duke and Arizona cancel it’s season-openers, Baylor out of Mohegan Sun and now Tennessee’s Rick Barnes tests positive for COVID.

We need a new plan for college hoops.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) November 23, 2020

"I'm glad that [the NCAA is] looking at different things, including I would hope they always keep in mind that if it did get bad, worse than what it is, that maybe you could have [the season] later," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski told reporters last week. "I've always been a proponent of that: starting the season later."

Even if the start of the season doesn't get pushed back, coaches are preparing for the possibility of missed games and thin rosters if players test positive for the coronavirus.

"Those thoughts creep in every day," Florida Gators head coach Mike White told the Associated Press. "I wonder how many games I'll miss this year. I wonder how many games we'll have our five starters out there, 12 guys available."

As for the Volunteers, they enter the season as the No. 12 team in the Associated Press poll and the No. 14 team in the Coaches Poll. 

Tennessee received a commitment Friday from Kennedy Chandler, one of the top prospects in the 2021 college basketball recruiting class. 

ESPN's Jeff Borzello reported the point guard's choice of the Volunteers:

Kennedy Chandler, the No. 1 point guard in 2021, has committed to Tennessee.

Chandler to @PaulBiancardi: “I was looking for a program that could help me develop and have a strong family atmosphere, and a coach I could relate to. Tennessee and Rick Barnes made me feel that way.”

— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) August 14, 2020

He selected the Vols amid offers from Duke, Kentucky, UNC and several other high-profile programs.

Hawks star Trae Young congratulated Chandler on Twitter after his decision:

This is different Lil bro.... I LOVE IT!!!
Ain’t nothing like reppin the home state, trust me🙏🏽💯 Go Crazy! https://t.co/fcIm848v0L

— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) August 14, 2020

Chandler is a 5-star prospect and the No. 11 overall player in the 2021 class, according to 247Sports' composite rankings. He's also listed as the best point guard and the No. 1 recruit from Kansas.

The dynamic playmaker's stock has rocketed over the past year, which led to offers from numerous elite basketball programs across the country.

"It has been crazy," he told Rivals' Corey Evans in December. "A lot of schools have been reaching out, calling me, texting me, and right now, I am just enjoying the process and getting ready for the season ahead."

Chandler is a terrific slasher with a lightning-quick first step, the ability to finish with either hand around the rim and no trouble contending with size in the paint. He's also displayed great vision to find open teammates after forcing the opposing defense to collapse.

The 6'1", 165-pound guard is still developing his outside shot, which will be essential for him to eventually become a top NBA draft prospect, and he'll need to continue filling out his frame in order to round out his game defensively.

Chandler should emerge as an immediate-impact player for Rick Barnes at Tennessee. At minimum, he's showcased the offensive skill set necessary to provide a spark off the bench as the primary ball-handler for the second unit, but he figures to play a larger role by the end of his freshman season.

His stay with the Vols may be a short one, however, especially if he shines during his first collegiate campaign to bolster his draft status for 2022.

Dawn Staley has turned South Carolina into a powerhouse, but LeBron James doesn't think the Gamecocks could hold a candle to the peak Tennessee experienced during the Pat Summitt era. 

On Sunday, SEC Network shared a graphic asking fans to pick the stronger starting five from the respective programs. The Los Angeles Lakers star chimed in to say the Lady Vols were the clear favorite:

Man WHAT??!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣. No disrespect to those lady Gamecocks and their hoopers cause they can ball but THAT Lady Vols team would SMASH damn near any team. Now if you put them vs Lady Huskies(Bird,DT, Maya, B. Stewart, Lobo) now we talking. And yes I know they ain’t in the SEC🤷🏾‍♂️ https://t.co/eRIm4uZC6l

— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 6, 2020

Because Tennessee has fallen out of the women's basketball elite following Summitt's departure, perhaps younger fans don't know how the Lady Vols set the gold standard for more than three decades. Summitt guided them to eight national titles and 18 Final Fours.

That hypothetical Tennessee starting lineup includes three winners of the Naismith College Player of the Year award: Candace Parker, Chamique Holdsclaw and Tamika Catchings. Parker and Holdsclaw were the NCAA tournament's Most Outstanding Player in back-to-back seasons as well.

Tiffany Mitchell, Ty Harris and A'ja Wilson were All-Americans during their time at South Carolina, but they can't compare to the legends that walked through the doors in Knoxville.

As James noted, Connecticut is one of the few teams that could throw out a lineup that could potentially match the best Tennessee had to offer.

Given the legendary rivalry the Huskies and Lady Vols enjoyed through the mid-to-late 1990s, there would undoubtedly be some passionate opinions on both sides as to who is superior.

Jaden Springer, a 5-star prospect from IMG Academy, announced Wednesday that he has committed to play college basketball at the University of Tennessee:

Breaking: 5-Star recruit Jaden Springer, ESPN's No. 16 player in the class of 2020, tells @PaulBiancardi he's committing to Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/zuDedC8iE3

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 23, 2019

The 6'5", 195-pound prospect is considered the No. 4 shooting guard, No. 4 player from the state of Florida and No. 16 overall player in the class of 2020, according to 247Sports' composite rankings.

Springer chose Tennessee over other top schools, including Memphis and Michigan to give the Volunteers the 247Sports' No. 4 rated class in 2020.

Jerry Meyer of 247Sports broke down Springer's game in his scouting report, noting he has "tremendous strength and build for a combo guard. Has average-to-good length. A power guard who is effective in traffic and plays through contact. Scores at all three levels. Great rebounder for a guard. Can also distribute, although scoring is his strength. Great potential defensively."

If Springer can consistently hit threes and take defensive strides, he could be a one-and-done lottery pick as a three-and-D wing, a role NBA teams covet. His ability to finish at the rim and his general prowess as a scorer bodes well for his pro impact.

Tennessee will hope Springer lives up to his immense potential, even if it's a brief stint at the school. 

The Volunteers are having a nice recruiting cycle, already nabbing 4-star small forward Corey Walker and 5-star shooting guard Keon Johnson. And that comes after a strong 2019 recruiting class, which featured 5-star guard Josiah-Jordan James and 3-star power forward Olivier Nkamhoua. 

After going 31-6 last season and reaching as high as No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, the Vols are building a strong foundation under head coach Rick Barnes. They look like they may be developing into perennial contenders for the SEC and national titles.

The University of Tennessee has reportedly tabbed Kellie Harper as the school's next head women's basketball coach.

ESPN's Chris Low (h/t Mechelle Voepel) confirmed a report from Fox News Knoxville on Monday that Tennessee plans to hire Harper after firing Holly Warlick last month.

Harper led Missouri State to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA women's tournament this season and previously won three national championships as a player at Tennessee in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

The 41-year-old Harper has been a collegiate head coach since getting hired by Western Carolina in 2004. She led the team to two NCAA tournament appearances and two NIT berths in five seasons before replacing legendary coach Kay Yow at NC State in 2009.

During her four seasons at NC State, Harper reached the NCAA tournament only one time and had just two winning seasons.

Following her firing in 2013, Harper was hired by Missouri State. In six seasons at the school, Harper took the Lady Bears to the NCAA tournament twice and the NIT on three occasions. She helped Missouri State finish 25-10 in 2018-19 with wins over No. 6 DePaul and No. 3 Iowa State in the NCAA tournament as a No. 11 seed before falling to second-seeded Stanford in the Sweet 16.

During her 15-year head coaching career, Harper owns a 285-208 record with five trips to the NCAA tournament.

Tennessee was once the most dominant program in women's college basketball, but the Lady Vols have not won a national title since 2008. Overall, Tennessee has eight national championships and 18 Final Four appearances to its credit.

Only UConn (11) has more all-time national titles than Tennessee.

The Lady Vols have been on the decline since the retirement of the late Pat Summit in 2012. Warlick took over as Tennessee's head coach in 2012, and while she led the Lady Vols to the NCAA tournament in each of her seven seasons at the helm, they never made it past the Elite Eight.

After losing in the second round of the tournament in both 2017 and 2018, Tennessee was ousted in the first round in 2019 by UCLA. The Lady Vols went just 19-13 on the season, marking the first time they didn't win at least 20 games in a season since 1975-76.

As a point guard under her maiden name of Kellie Jolly, Harper played under Summit and Warlick, who was Summit's head assistant.

Rick Barnes will remain with the Tennessee Volunteers and remove himself from consideration for the UCLA Bruins' head coach vacancy, according to ESPN.com's Chris Low. 

Low reported Monday that UCLA had approached Barnes and discussed a possible deal that would be worth $5 million per year. However, Tennessee provided Barnes with an amended contract that enticed him to stay in Knoxville.

The Volunteers finished this year with a 31-6 record and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2014. Tennessee is likely to take a step backward in 2019-20, though. Admiral Schofield is graduating, and Jordan Bone already declared for the 2019 draft.

With Barnes at the helm, the Vols can feel confident the program is still headed in the right direction.

On the other side, this is yet another setback for the Bruins, who have struck out on every one of their preferred targets so far.

Have the Bruins considered using a job service like Glassdoor, Monster, Indeed or LinkedIn to find their next head coach? Now with Rick Barnes no longer in the mix, that’s gotta be the next move for UCLA.

— Bryan Kalbrosky (@BryanKalbrosky) April 9, 2019

The UCLA coaching search is officially worse than the plot of The Godfather: Part III and that's bad territory to be in.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 9, 2019

So far, UCLA has:

1) Offered John Calipari a "monster" offer... that was less than he was already making
2) Refused to pay Jamie Dixon's buyout
3) Got Rick Barnes a pay raise at Tennessee

This is officially the worst coaching search of my lifetime. There isnt a close second

— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) April 9, 2019

The Athletic's Seth Davis reported the school would pursue Cincinnati Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin if Barnes proved to be a non-starter.

Regardless of the money involved, it says a lot about where UCLA is at the moment that Barnes would view Tennessee as the preferred destination. Historically speaking, UCLA is one of the most successful programs in college basketball and has the added advantage of playing in one of the biggest media markets in the United States.

Despite that, Barnes—like John Calipari and Jamie Dixon—is staying put.

The Bruins are providing a big reason why having a reasonable idea of potential successors is a good idea when firing a head coach.

Steve Alford was out on New Year's Eve, and Murry Bartow took over as the interim replacement. At the time, UCLA must have thought its coaching search would come together rather quickly at the end of the season.

Instead, the search is devolving into a farce, with each mishap further damaging perception of the Bruins.

After wrapping up a successful junior year at Tennessee, Jordan Bone is ready to challenge himself against professional competition. 

Per 247Sports' Evan Daniels, Bone announced he will enter the 2019 NBA draft. 

"I feel like over these past three years that I have put myself in a good position to test the waters," Bone said. "I'm a junior now so they have the rule where you can test the waters and come back if need be but honestly I feel like I have proven myself to be one of the better point guards in the country."

Bone added "there is always a chance" he could return to the Volunteers, but he doesn't see it happening unless something drastic changes during the predraft process. 

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance and not many people can say that they're in the position," he said. "I'm extremely blessed to be in my position, but if the opportunity is there to take, then I'm going to take it."

Per 247Sports' Jordan James, national college basketball analyst Jerry Meyer believes Bone is being underrated as an NBA prospect. 

"I think Jordan is a first-round pick," Meyer said. "In my opinion I think he's that talented. I think he's a guy that you can throw out there, and no one's going to stop Russell Westbrook let's say, but [Bone] has the athleticism, the size, the physicality to hang with a guy like [Westbrook]."

B/R's Jonathan Wasserman didn't include Bone on among the top 75 draft-eligible prospects on his most recent big board.

The 2018-19 season was Bone's best at Tennessee. He averaged a career-high 13.5 points and 5.8 assists per game while shooting 46.5 percent from the field to help the Vols advance to the Sweet 16. 

Tennessee is trending upward. Looking into the future, the Rick Barnes-led program should be consistently competing with Kentucky for a top position in the SEC and a fixture in the AP Top 25 poll.

Inconsistency, however, accompanies that hopeful rise right now. The peaks are spectacular, but the valleys are annoyingly low.

And the 2018-19 squad is exemplifying that complex position.

Tennessee began the campaign sixth in the AP poll, the highest preseason ranking in program history. As the calendar has flipped to March, the Vols have backed up that billing with a 26-3 record and have never left the Top 10 all season.

Grant Williams, the reigning SEC Player of the Year, has been the superstar everyone expected. He should be an All-American this year. Led by Admiral Schofield, four other players average double figures.

In nonconference action, Tennessee toppled Louisville and handed Gonzaga one of its two losses. Including the late-January clash with West Virginia, the Vols cruised through that portion of the schedule. They finished 12-1 outside of SEC play with 10 victories of 13-plus points, with the only loss coming to Kansas in overtime in November.

That tremendous start ushered in a program-record 19-game winning streak, crushing the old mark of 15 and providing a humorous moment from Barnes after victory No. 16.

Rick Barnes on Tennessee’s 16-game winning streak, which sets a new school record: “Is that a record?”

— @GrantRamey (@GrantRamey) February 3, 2019

The byproduct was four straight weeks at No. 1 in the AP poll, which is especially notable because the Vols previously stood atop the AP just once ever—in the 2007-08 season.

Along the way, though, a soft schedule was reason to temper praise. After knocking off Gonzaga on Dec. 9, Tennessee didn't play another Top 25 opponent for more than two months.

That's not entirely in the Vols' control, but it's what happened. While the dominance showed during that stretch was impressive, many fans and analysts took a wait-and-see approach.

Objectively, this is one of Tennessee's best teams. Subjectively, it's in the conversation as the standard in team history. Yet nobody is suggesting the Vols are a perfect group because the flaws are apparent―and have recently started to show.

The chief issues are a lack of high-volume perimeter threats and shaky defensive rebounding, ranking 328th in three-point attempt rate and in the bottom 25 percent of defensive efficiency on the glass. That combination has already proved fatal when the competition level has risen, and it's only going to get higher.

Plus, in the latest AP poll, the only schools in the Top 15―which contains a strong majority of the championship betting favorites, per Vegas Insider―with a lower strength of schedule than Tennessee are Houston and Virginia Tech.

So, given the weaknesses and a shortage of tests, it wasn't a surprise when Kentucky earned a 17-point triumph in mid-February. Following an unimpressive offensive day at Vanderbilt, Tennessee lost to a short-handed LSU in overtime and clipped Ole Miss thanks to a last-minute recovery.

The biggest concerns were painfully evident. And with a rematch against Kentucky looming, the timing couldn't have been worse.

Naturally, the Vols demolished Kentucky.

Because of that win, Barnes' team is headed for a top-two seed in the SEC tournament. If LSU takes the regular-season crown, the Vols could encounter both Kentucky and LSU. The neutral-site matchups would offer critical insights into their NCAA upside.

At their best, they can compete with anyone. Wins over Louisville, Gonzaga (albeit slightly short-handed), a mostly healthy Kansas and Kentucky show that. That recent rout of Kentucky sure is encouraging after a disappointing two-week stretch, too.

But the let downs cannot be ignored, either.

Tennessee's superb talent can struggle to atone for tepid perimeter output. And if the Vols are inefficient on the boards, it's the perfect recipe for a close margin. To this point, their only stretches of tight finishes happened in December and February―and the more recent results weren't consistently encouraging.

The future in Knoxville is tremendously bright. Right now, though, it means wondering which Tennessee team shows up when the competition is toughest.

            

All recruiting information via 247Sports. All statistics courtesy of KenPom or Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. Follow Bleacher Report writer David Kenyon on Twitter @Kenyon19_BR.