Tennessee basketball: Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, other transfers of no concern yet

So far, Tennessee basketball is certain to lose four players from this past year. Kennedy Chandler entered the NBA Draft with an agent, Victor Bailey Jr. transferred to the George Mason Patriots, and Quentin Diboundje transferred to the East Carolina Pirates. They could lose a fourth with Santiago Vescovi testing the NBA Draft waters.

Two more players are likely to be gone, though, with Handje Tamba entering the transfer portal last week and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield entering the portal over the weekend. Of all these departures, Huntley-Hatfield’s is the one that is most alarming.

Last year, Huntley-Hatfield was a five-star on some services, and he and Tamba were the future of the Vols along with Jonas Aidoo with John Fulkerson leaving this year. He announced his decision to enter the portal Sunday morning on Twitter.

Sure, when you’re losing Fulky already and you have a guy who started down the stretch of the season with a ton of hype at 6’10” 246 pounds also leaving, it’s fair to start being concerned, That’s especially the case with all the guys Tennessee basketball has already lost.

However, Barnes has already prepared for these departures in the backcourt. The Vols do have a commitment from four-star guard B.J. Edwards, and Jahmai Mashack is expected to take a step forward this year. There are players in the rotation ready to fill those voids.

The real concern for many is the inside presence. It’s not a real issue. Look, Huntley-Hatfield averaged under four points and right at three rebounds this year. His minutes increased after Olivier Nkamhoua’s season-ending injury. In the final 13 games that followed, he still averaged just over four and a half points and under four rebounds a game.

Simply put, it doesn’t seem like he’s the biggest loss. More importantly, think about who the Vols still have. Nkamhoua is coming back and was emerging into a star at the stretch-four spot before being hurt. Jonas Aidoo brings potential on his own and can occupy the five with Uros Plavsic. That’s a three-man rotation down low.

Honestly, that’s really all you need. Tennessee basketball can run Justin Powell or maybe, if he comes back for his senior year as he appears likely to do, run Josiah-Jordan James down there. Heck, if Mashack emerges, he could play in the post.

Zakai Zeigler and Edwards are the guys to occupy the backcourt, and Vescovi could still come back. Taking all this into account, even with the departures, the Vols have plenty of options to make sure they have a solid postgame. They only ran a three-man rotation this year after Nkamhoua got hurt and won the SEC Tournament doing it.

This doesn’t even take into account what Barnes might do in the transfer portal. There are plenty of options out there for Tennessee basketball, and he might want to focus as much on finding another two-guard as finding another big man. Playing small helped this year, so don’t worry about these transfers. UT will be just fine.