Tennessee basketball is moving up in way-to-early top 25 rankings

The last time we talked about Tennessee basketball in the way-to-early top 25 rankings, they were ranked No. 18, but now they have found themselves moving higher and higher.

In the most recent ESPN way-to-early top 25 rankings, the Volunteers come in at No. 13, sandwiched between Texas A&M at No. 12 and Arkansas at No. 14. Rick Barnes has done some great things with this Tennessee team and a lot of that could be seen with Dalton Knect who was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Draft and is currently tearing it up in the NBA Summer League.

Barnes hit the transfer portal hard this past offseason by breaking even with the players he lost. Losing any amount of players hurt, but the Volunteers were lucky to only lose four this offseason and Barnes was able to bring in four more guys to help make up for the loss.

Even with losing Knect, who was the Volunteers leading scorer and true core of the team, Tennessee still has a lot of talent on their roster. ESPN projected their starting five to be Zakai Zeigler (11.8 PPG), UNF transfer Chaz Lanier (19.7 PPG), Jahmai Mashack (4.5 PPG), Hofstra transfer Darlinstone Dubar (17.8 PPG) and Ohio State transfer Felix Okpara (6.6 PPG).

Last season Tennessee was favored for a while to win the National Championship and was almost the overall No. 1 seed in March Madness. The Volunteers did stumble a bit in the SEC Tournament, but they soared all the way to the Elite Eight but were taken out by Purdue who made it all the way to the National Championship.

The additions of Lanier and Dubar are huge for the Volunteers scoring game. Lanier was one of the most sought-after sharpshooters in the transfer portal and Barnes was able to wrangle him in. Both players will be huge additions and should start making a difference almost instantly.

Tennessee has a real shot to be where they were last season and even build on that and hope for not just a National Championship appearance, but a National Championship title.