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Tennessee basketball: Four potential breakout Vols for 2019-2020

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 2: Dunk from Yves Pons #35 of the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half of their game against the Texas A&M-CC Islanders at Thompson-Boling Arena on December 2, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 2: Dunk from Yves Pons #35 of the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half of their game against the Texas A&M-CC Islanders at Thompson-Boling Arena on December 2, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images /

Four recruits, one transfer and two returning top scorers are the story for men’s Tennessee basketball. But here are 2019-20 Volunteers who could break out.

Lamonte Turner and Jordan Bowden are the returning stars. Josiah-James is the five-star recruit to make up an elite backcourt. And Tennessee basketball has a transfer along with three other new recruits as well.

All of these players are reasons for tepid optimism surrounding the Vols this year. They are task with helping to offset the loss of four starters and a bench player, including the three leading scorers, the three leading rebounders and two leading assists men. Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield, Jordan Bone and Kyle Alexander all have NBA contracts for a reason.

But even with all of those new guys, there’s another way Rick Barnes could withstand so much attrition from a 31-6 team that was No. 1 in the nation for nearly a month and lost a heartbreaker in the Sweet Sixteen. And it comes down to other returning talent for Tennessee basketball.

The Vols have four players who were more or less reserves last year and are back this year with a chance to make a major impact. Although Bowden came off the bench, he was clearly a rotational player. In this post, we’re going to rank those four players by their potential to break out this year.

All of them saw action in the school’s dominant 107-59 exhibition win over the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds Wednesday. And we have a bit to go on with that to determine which of these guys have the most potential.

To qualify, these players can’t have started more than half the games in the season, and they all have to have averaged fewer than 15 minutes a game. Also, and this is crucial, they have to have been on the roster for UT.

Derrick Walker and DJ Burns, two forwards would have been on this list after Walker came off the bench last year and Burns took a redshirt. But both of them transferred out, leaving UT with only four reserve guys who could potentially make a jump.

How big of a jump could they make? Who will take the biggest leap and help Barnes replace so much talent? There are lots of opportunities here. This is our ranking of the four potential breakout Vols for the 2019-2020 Tennessee basketball season.

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