Tennessee basketball expectations skyrocket with Julian Phillips commitment. How high can they go?

They lost star point guard Kennedy Chandler to the NBA Draft, center John Fulkerson to graduation and starting power forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield to the transfer portal along with Victor Bailey Jr. and Justin Powell. Meanwhile, two Tennessee basketball starters are testing the draft waters, Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James.

However, a couple of additions by Rick Barnes still has expectations for Rocky Top next year through the roof. Gary Parrish has them in the top 10 of his Top 25 and 1 rankings for 2022-2023, and Joe Lunardi of ESPN has him as a No. 3 seed in his updated bracketology projections.

The addition of Indiana State Sycamores transfer guard Tyreke Key and five-star wing Julian Phillips is what’s driving this spike. Four-star guard B.J. Edwards already being committed and Olivier Nkamhoua set to return to health also helps with this.

Here’s the crazy part of this, though. Rocky Top may not be done. The Vols have at least two scholarships available, and they may have three depending on which year power forward Tobe Awaka, who committed this week, decides to classify himself in.

With those available scholarships, the Vols are trending for some elite players, including Big 12 All-Freshman guard Tyrese Hunter, who is in the transfer portal after one year with the Iowa State Cyclones. Taking that into account, you could see expectations shoot even higher.

What if, as expected, James and Vescovi return to Tennessee basketball? They will have already offset all their rotational losses from the end of last year, and that doesn’t even include the addition of Phillips, who is expected to be the one-and-done star next year.

To be fair, these expectations are still based on those two returning, but that would cement it, and last year’s team did win the SEC Tournament while earning a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Still, if that’s where they are now, then they could be thinking much bigger soon.

Add Key and another big man, which is where Barnes really needs to put his focus, and we might be looking at UT as a top five team across most prediction services next year. There are still questions surrounding Barnes when it comes to coaching one-and-done talent, but the job he did this past year helps with that.

Either way, there is plenty to be excited about surrounding Tennessee basketball this upcoming year once again. Despite what anybody says, the game clearly hasn’t passed Barnes by on the recruiting trail. His proven track record at developing talent will likely draw more in soon.