ESPN: Tennessee basketball SEC favorites if Yves Pons returns

Jeff Borzello says this decision will have a huge impact on the Tennessee basketball Volunteers.

Questions are abound about where to rank Tennessee basketball for 2020-2021 with a top five recruiting class coming off a 17-14 season. Should they be a top 25 team in the running for the SEC championship or a top 10 team in the running for the Final Four?

Well, for one writer, that pressing question comes down to a pressing answer that is still up in the air: What will Yves Pons do? The 6’6″ 215-pound forward who won SEC Defensive Player of the Year as a junior last season declared for the NBA Draft back in April and has until Aug. 17 to decide whether or not to return to school.

According to Jeff Borzello of ESPN, whether or not Pons returns is one of college basketball’s 15 biggest remaining questions of the offseason, coming in at No. 14. Borzello noted that if Pons does come back, UT should be a top 10 team and the favorites to win the SEC Championship, even over the Kentucky Wildcats. Here’s a bit of what he said.

"While not ranked in ESPN’s top 100 draft rankings, Yves Pons does intrigue some NBA teams. He is a terrific defender, and he made about one 3-pointer per game last season. That said, he should return to Knoxville next season.…Rick Barnes has guards and playmakers, he has scorers on the wing and he has depth and options up front. But Pons is the type of X factor every Final Four-caliber team needs: Someone who can make plays at both ends of the floor."

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Now, that’s a bit ambitious, but there’s no reason not to bet on the Vols if Pons comes back. After all, at that point, they will have returned everybody from the second half of last season except for Jordan Bowden and add their top five recruiting class to that plus transfer forward E.J. Anosike and combo guard Victor Bailey Jr., who will now be eligible.

Speaking of Anosike, a 6’6″ 245-pound forward who can shot in the 70s from the free throw line percentage-wise and averaged a double-double last year, Rick Barnes is prepared for the loss of Pons with that addition. His ability to develop undersized power forwards who use their width increases the Vols’ potential with Anosike.

However, if Pons returns, then Barnes has the option of going big with Pons at the three, Anosike at the four and John Fulkerson, the best player on the team the last month of the 2019-2020 season, at the five. He could put Pons in a role similar to Admiral Schofield at that point while an insane amount of elite guards compete for the other two spots.

Otherwise, he could have Pons and Anosike alternate for a nice change of pace. Either way, Tennessee basketball will be loaded if Pons does return, so it makes sense to look at them as potential contenders if everything works out the way it’s supposed to.