Tennessee basketball 2019-2020 preview: Vols frontcourt
Final take
It looks like Tennessee basketball could be in for a long year in the post. The amount of production they had to replace was just too much, and losing two players to transfer combined with missing out on Kerry Blackshear Jr. only made it worse.
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The Vols only have two true returning contributors from last year who could make it in the rotation in John Fulkerson and Yves Pons. Pons is better-suited to play on the wing anyway, so him being in this situation is only because of the fact that Rick barnes doesn’t have enough depth and will likely need to go small this year.
Meanwhile, neither has proven they are capable of starting on a consistent basis anyway. And neither has the proper size to play the center position, which leaves that open for Uros Plavsic, a redshirt freshman transfer who may not yet be eligible to play yet, and Zach Kent, who is coming off a season-ending injury and only has two games of playing experience in college.
So the Vols best hope is for Plavsic to be eligible to play and then two players develop among Pons, Fulkerson and the two freshmen, Drew Pember and Olivier Nkamhoua. Just one of them developing would be disastrous.
Next. 10 years Vols basketball was better than football. dark
You don’t replace Grant Williams overnight. Tennessee basketball has a long road ahead to figure out how to win without him. But Rick Barnes knows how to develop talent. This team’s postgame will be his toughest test yet since arriving on Rocky Top.