Tennessee basketball: Five most important Vols for 2019-2020

A two-year reserve, Yves Pons was once a four-star recruit from France for Tennessee basketball. At 6’6″ 215 pounds, he is the guy in line to replace Admiral Schofield on the wing this year. His athleticism was always a plus, but with Uros Plavsic not being able to play, his importance just grew exponentially.

With Plavsic, Barnes could have debated whether or not to go big and have him compete to start at the three or play small and start him at the four. Now, though, Barnes has no chance but to play him at the four. That means the Vols will go in the post only as far as Pons is able to take them, and that will depend on how much he developed this offseason.

Pons did play on the French Under 20 National Team in the summer. But he was 28 percent from the three-point line last year and 40 percent from the free throw line. Still, though, he shot 51.6 percent overall from the field and averaged just over two points and just under two rebounds a game in just under 12 minutes of action.

But he did have 13 starts, mostly at the beginning of the year, even playing the two position when UT was dealing with injuries. And they had some key wins at that point. So Pons has a ton of versatility and athleticism. Just a little improvement in his outside shooting could make him elite.