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If you’re old like me, you might remember the “Supermarket Sweep” game show. Contestants would have a few minutes to sprint through a grocery store and grab as many items as they could. Whoever had racked up the buggy with the most valuable items won. (Given the current grocery prices, they just call this “shopping” now, and nobody wins, but I digress.)
Rick Barnes and the Tennessee basketball team have approached the transfer portal the same way, and he’s seeking out the high value. He’s looking for those bonus items. Barnes is taking his time. He’s shopping smarter, not harder. He’s finding that fancy cheese in the back of the bin at the deli. He’s getting that good wine, on the top shelf. He’s picking out the organic vegetables.
Just let him cook, because the Vols could be ready to feast in November.
With the addition of Juke Harris (21.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.9 apg, .444 FG, .382 3PT, .783 FT) formerly at Wake Forest) on Monday morning, the Vols’ already impressive haul through the portal became that much more formidable. Harris is considered one of the top overall players available in the portal, and maybe the best shooting guard in the entire crop. His 730 overall points and 22.9 point average in Atlantic Coast Conference play both stand second in Wake’s single-season record book.
Harris becomes the seventh acquisition through the portal, joining Tyler Lundblade from Belmont (an acquisition that our SEC Insider Chris Dortch had surrounded before it went official), Jalan Haralson from Notre Dame, Terrene Hill, Jr., out of VCU, the well-traveled Dai Dai Ames who most recently played at California, big man Miles Rubin from Loyola Chicago, and Braedan Lue out of Kennesaw State.
Barnes also has signed a talented freshman class headlined by Christopher Washington, Jr., but adding so many experienced players through the portal means the Vols can bring along those rookies slowly, if necessary.
Just look at the possible starting lineup the Vols can field. Tennessee has two quality options at the point in Hill or Ames. That’s something the Vols did not have last season, when everything went through Ja’Kobi Gillespie. Harris is a lock at the two and it’s hard to envision a scenario where Haralson — a McDonald’s All American and the highest rated high school player ever to sign at Notre Dame who had one of the best seasons ever by a Fighting Irish freshman — doesn’t play a major role. Lundblade is the type of prolific 3-point shooter who has thrived in Knoxville (see Dalton Knecht and Chaz Lanier). There’s depth in the frontcourt with Lue, Rubin, and the returning DeWayne Brown II. Washington’s going to play a bunch.
And we haven’t even talked about Nate Ament, who has yet to declare whether or not he’s going into the NBA Draft (That deadline comes May 27).
Now, the Vols definitely would be a stronger team with Ament. Should he come back, and he might, this would definitely be a highly-ranked preseason team.
But let’s say Ament goes pro. When you look at what Barnes has assembled, and the strong likelihood of a starting lineup consisting entirely of transfers, there’s an obvious comparison to another team that fielded a starting lineup of five transfers and saw great success.
That would be Michigan, which cut down the nets as national champion last month.
The copycat tendency is strong in any sport (not to mention sports media, but again, I digress), and so it’s natural for Tennessee to try and follow the roster construction strategy that Dusty May and his staff in Ann Arbor used to bring the Wolverines their first national title since 1989 — and the first by a Big Ten teams since Michigan State in 2000.
And if that’s what it takes in the current landscape, fielding an all-transfer starting lineup, does that make it mean less for Tennessee fans? I hear regularly from people who complain about NIL and the portal and the constant roster turnover, how it’s hard to root for the athletes because they change teams so frequently. Some of these same individuals are also the type to complain about playing for the name on the back of the jersey and not the front, but once again, I digress.
I don’t think fans care so much about whether you’ve got a guy like John Fulkerson on your roster, who spent so much time in Knoxville he probably could have run for office; or a guy like Gillespie, an East Tennessee native who came to Tennessee for his final year of eligibility; or a bunch of guys like the ones on this roster, who have played at spots all over the country and been brought together here in Knoxville to try and win a title — and yes, make some significant money. Winning goes a long way to absolve any complaints.
Does all this mean Barnes and the Vols are destined for a championship next season? Absolutely not. But I keep thinking back to what our SEC Insider Chris reported back in March, with Barnes telling the team after a third straight Elite Eight loss, “We’re going to come right back here and kick that door down.”
The Vols are assembling the pieces necessary to do exactly that.
Meanwhile, we’ll have more on Harris, and the Vols, later this week in the next SEC Insider from Chris Dortch.