Tennessee basketball tied for most players invited to NBA Combine

It’s hard to overstate what Rick Barnes has turned Tennessee basketball into when he secures back to back top five recruiting classes and gets the program to a point where a first-round NCAA Tournament exit is a disappointment. His impact on players going pro is now showing as well.

UT made news earlier this week with three players being invited to the NBA Combine, which is set to begin Monday, June 21 and last through Sunday, June 27. Yves Pons, Jaden Springer and Keon Johnson all received invites.

Here’s the real kicker, though: No school had more players invited. Only three other schools joined Tennessee basketball with three players receiving invites: the Texas Longhorns, Baylor Bears and Alabama Crimson Tide.

To be fair, the G-League, which isn’t even a school, had the most players invited with four. Still, for the Vols to have three players invited is a big deal, especially when just two years ago they had three players selected in the NBA Draft.

What also stands out from that draft and this combine is the diversity of players. Pons, like Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield in 2019, is a stretch forward. Johnson and Springer are both off-guards, with Johnson primarily a combo guard and Springer a scoring guard. Jordan Bone, also drafted in 2019 was a point guard.

Even beyond the variety of positions is the way they became high-profile names. Williams, Schofield, Bone and Pons were all three and four-year developmental guys. Springer and Johnson are one-and-dones. Oh, and we didn’t even mention Kyle Alexander, a four-year guy who went undrafted but is a true center and still inked a deal with the Miami Heat.

Simply put, Barnes is loading up the NBA with former Tennessee basketball players, and with another top five class this year, he could have even more than three invited to next year’s combine. There’s no doubt he has the Vols reaching heights they haven’t reached in decades, and this is just another example of that.