{"id":774668,"date":"2026-06-30T17:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/774668\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:30:15","slug":"espn-analyst-gives-his-utmost-respect-for-tennessee-basketball-transfer-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/774668\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Analyst Gives His ‘Utmost Respect’ For Tennessee Basketball Transfer Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Terrence<\/a>Tennessee Basketball signee Terrence Hill Jr. Photo via @Vol_Hoops.<\/p>\n

While Wake Forest transfer Juke Harris garners much of the top headlines around Tennessee Basketball\u2019s highly-touted transfer portal class, one of the most important additions that the Vols made this year was bringing in VCU transfer Terrence Hill Jr.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-3 guard played his first two seasons at VCU before transferring to Tennessee this offseason, giving Rick Barnes and the UT staff a talented scorer to work with at the top of the key. Hill played in 36 games with the Rams last season and averaged 15.0 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game.<\/p>\n

Hill put together some of his best showcases towards the end of the season, dazzling the college basketball world with a standout performance against 5-seed North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament. Hill exploded for 34 points on 56.5% shooting, while knocking down seven of his 10 three-point attempts. He played 40 minutes while helping lead his team to the upset victory in overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can say, (Hill is) probably the craftiest player I\u2019ve played with in my college career so far, and I\u2019ve played with a lot of great players, but he\u2019s definitely your most offensively gifted one I\u2019ve been with,\u201d Tennessee transfer and fellow former VCU teammate Christian Fermin told RTI in May. \u201cHe\u2019s a pace player. \u2029He doesn\u2019t let anybody speed up. He\u2019s going to get to his spot wherever he wants to at most times for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n

One analyst who had the chance to see Hill\u2019s standout game against the Tar Heels in person was college basketball and draft expert Paul Biancardi. The ESPN analyst recently recalled his memories of watching that game while speaking with Vince Ferrara and John Wilkerson on The Sports Animal\u2019s SportsTalk radio show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne guy who really impressed me a lot \u2013 in the NCAA Tournament, of course, but all year long \u2013 was the transfer from VCU, Terrence Hill Jr.,\u201d Biancardi said<\/a>. \u201cI can\u2019t get out of my mind what he did to North Carolina in the tournament! I mean, guys, I was sitting courtside. And I\u2019m going, \u2018Okay, alright, okay, this guy\u2019s a killer.\u2019 And when I say someone\u2019s a killer, that\u2019s the utmost respect I have for a player. That means I don\u2019t want to coach against them, and I want him on my team.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

More From RTI:\u00a0Where Tennessee Basketball Lands In SEC Preseason Power Rankings<\/a><\/p>\n

As a four-star prospect in the portal, 247Sports ranked Hill as the No. 19 player in the class and the No. 5 point guard. Following the 2025-2026 season, Hill was tagged as the Atlantic 10\u2019s Most Improved Player and the conference\u2019s 6th Man of the Year winner.<\/p>\n

Hill has a wide-ranging skillset that\u2019ll immediately be beneficial to Tennessee, but he\u2019s also surrounded by other talented players that the Vols landed in the portal. Next to him on the perimeter are Dai Dai Ames and Tyler Lundblade, while Juke Harris and Jalen Haralson patrol the wings and the paint. Rick Barnes has always put a lot of the shoulders of his point guard, whether it be during his Texas days or his Tennessee days, but Hill has the ability to manage the responsibility.<\/p>\n

RTI\u2019s Ryan Schumpert observed UT\u2019s practice last Thursday morning and noted that Hill and Harris were going back and forth for the best player on the court honors during the 5-on-5 work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHill showed himself to be a three-level scorer who made a handful of plays that stood out,\u201d Schumpert wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe VCU transfer hit a deep top of the key three-pointer in transition after a defender went under a ball screen. He also had a crafty up and under finish with his left hand in the half court. Hill also showed some toughness too, taking a hit to the face that caused his nose to bleed. The combo guard came back in and finished practice with his nose clogged to stop the bleeding. Hill is certainly a natural combo guard at this point and still has a ways to go in running the offense as a true point guard. But it is June 25 so that isn\u2019t all that surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are plenty of new players for Tennessee fans to be excited about with the upcoming roster, but Hill is undoubtedly around the top of the list.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee Basketball news, notes, and coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennessee Basketball signee Terrence Hill Jr. Photo via @Vol_Hoops. While Wake Forest transfer Juke Harris garners much of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,7926,1919,12161,87205],"class_list":["post-774668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-rick-barnes","tag-tennessee-basketball","tag-tennessee-vols","tag-terrence-hill"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116840249695097795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}