By CHRIS DORTCH
When my friend and frequent collaborator John Moorehouse asked if I’d be interested in joining the I-81 team, I was intrigued because I thought the website would give me a forum for some long-gestating ideas that otherwise would have had no home other than the dark recesses of my mind. As that old public-service announcement used to say, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste,” so with my first column, which will subsequently cover Southeastern Conference basketball in general, I wanted to focus on an idea I’ve had about Tennessee:
The All-Rick Barnes Era team.
I’m choosing a first and second team for players who have toiled for the future Naismith Hall of Famer since he arrived in 2015, and I think my picks are obvious. Others may not agree. But I would love to hear from Tennessee fans who might want to take a crack at their own 10-player All-Barnes teams.
First Team
Center—Felix Okpara (2024-26). Yes, I know Okpara has averaged 6.1 points and 5.4 rebounds in his career. And Barnes wasn’t too pleased with the fact the 6-11, 220-pound Ohio State transfer grabbed only one rebound in the Vols’ annual butt-kicking at Florida last Saturday. But consider that Barnes hasn’t coached that many serviceable big men in his 11 seasons in Knoxville. Okpara is that and more. He’s a rim protector who has averaged nearly two blocks a game in his career, can guard—for a possession or two at least—every position, and every now and again can score, especially off pick-and-roll lobs and offensive rebound putbacks. I think he could average double figures if Barnes needed him to. He’s vastly improved his jump shot and free-throw percentages under Barnes’ watchful eye.
Power forward—Grant Williams (2016-19). Williams is the biggest no brainer on my All-Barnes team. He showed up as an overweight, undersized forward who had been recruited primarily by Ivy League schools and ended his career a year early to enter the NBA Draft. No one could have forecast that. But Williams became a two-time SEC Player of the Year and as a junior, a consensus All-American. Had he stayed, he probably would have won a third consecutive league player-of-the-year honor. But he wound up being picked in the first round by the Boston Celtics and while also playing for Dallas and Charlotte, has made generational wealth since, as evidenced by his $1.5 million gift to Tennessee athletics last September.
Small forward—Dalton Knecht (2024-24). Some members of the Tennessee staff weren’t exactly sure about Knecht, the transfer from Northern Colorado, who in his lone season with the Vols surpassed even Williams’ junior year accomplishments—SEC Player of the Year, consensus first-team All-American, and the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year winner. But at Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, we thought he could play in the SEC, because we had our sources, including his coach at Northern Colorado, who told us he thought Knecht could score against anyone in college basketball. He proved that at Tennessee with a deadly 3-point stroke, a mid-range game, and some get-to-the-rack, bully ball moves. He often put the Vols on his shoulders and carried them to victory as they advanced all the way to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight. Knecht, who signed with Tennessee to be coached hard so he would have a chance at the NBA, wound up as the No. 17 pick in the first round of the 2024 Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Shooting guard—Chaz Lanier (2024-25). Lanier was a worthy successor to Knecht. He didn’t produce quite the numbers Knecht did, but he ended up on the All-SEC team, the John Wooden All-America team and was voted the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year. He also broke Tennessee legend Chris Lofton’s career record for 3-point goals in a season (Lofton made 118 in 2007-08, Lanier made 123), which led the SEC. He also paced the league with 564 field-goal attempts. Like Knecht, Lanier sometimes single-handedly carried Tennessee to victory, and led the Vols to the Elite Eight. He too is on an NBA roster; he was chosen by Detroit in the second round of last June’s draft and signed a four-year deal worth nearly $9 million.
Point guard—Ja’Kobi Gillespie (2025-26). Yeah, I remember Zakai Zeigler. I know how many school records he left behind when his career ended last season. But if Gillespie, who played two seasons at Belmont and another at Maryland, had started his career at Tennessee, he’d have racked up the same or better numbers as Zeigler. Gillespie is bigger and stronger than Zeigler, a better finisher—he shot 66% from two at Belmont in 2023-24 and led the Missouri Valley in effective field-goal percentage (63.1)—and is a much better jump shooter (37.5% career from behind the arc). Already this season, Gillespie has racked up two 30-plus point games and five more of at least 20. He’s also getting the hang of playing the point for Barnes, no easy task.
Second Team
Center—Jonas Aidoo (2021-24). After the 2023-24 season, Aidoo and fellow post man Tobe Awaka were spirited away by the same “NIL agent,” who was supposedly trying to get them sponsorship deals but instead was shopping them to the highest bidding team. It wasn’t playing time that forced Aidoo to leave; in his final season in Knoxville in 2023-24, he averaged 11.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks and was a second-team All-SEC pick. Had Aidoo and Awaka stayed around last season, they might have helped lead the Vols to the Final Four.
Power forward—Admiral Schofield (2015-16). Schofield fell in and out of favor with Barnes during their time together, but when Schofield finally bought in, he became one of the better players in the SEC. As a senior he averaged 16.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and shot 41.8% from 3. Schofield was drafted in the second round by the Washington Wizards, with whom he signed a three-year, $4.3 million deal.
Small forward—Nate Ament (2025-26). Ament has posted solid numbers so far (14.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game), but his shooting percentages are low, and he has a negative assist-to-turnover ratio. Still, Barnes keeps talking about how dedicated Ament is to improvement and that by season’s end, he’ll live up to his five-star recruit billing. I’ll trust Barnes’ judgment on that.
Point guard—Kennedy Chandler (2021-22). This is my team, so I can put two point guards on it if I want. Besides, Chandler and Zeigler played together as freshmen, and they formed a menacing defensive combo. In his only season at Tennessee, Chandler started all 34 games and averaged 13.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.2 steals. He also shot 46.4% from the floor and 38.3% from three. If one were to nitpick, Chandler managed just 60.6% from the free-throw line: not good for a point guard who, at crunch time, has the ball in his hands constantly. Chandler might have been better served staying in college longer than a season, but he entered the NBA Draft early and was chosen in the second round by his hometown Memphis Grizzlies. He’s since played for the Nets and Raptors.
Point guard—Zakai Zeigler (2021-25). We’ll give the little man his due here. He led the SEC in assists for three consecutive years and set school records for career assists (747) and steals (251), but he wasn’t the offensive player Gillespie is. Still, Zeigler’s story—no college scholarship offers until the Vols found him at the Peach Jam in the summer of 2021—was compelling, and Big Orange Nation loved him. He was a leader, a defensive pest, and turned himself from a shooting guard in a small point guard’s body into a legitimate set-up man who could also get his own shot.
Honorable mention: Kyle Alexander (2015-19), Tobe Awaka (2022-24), Jordan Bone (2016-19), Jordan Bowden (2016-20), John Fulkerson (2016-22), Keon Johnson (2020-21), Josiah-Jordan James (2019-24), Jahmai Mashack (2021-25), Yves Pons (2017-21), Jaden Springer (2020-21), Kevin Punter (2014-16), Lamonte Turner (2016-20), Santiago Vescovi (2019-24).