{"id":81318,"date":"2025-06-06T18:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/81318\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T18:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:16:11","slug":"where-tennessee-basketball-lands-in-espn-way-too-early-rankings-post-nba-draft-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/81318\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Tennessee Basketball Lands In ESPN Way-Too-Early Rankings Post NBA Draft Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>Photo By Andrew Ferguson\/Tennessee Athletics<\/p>\n

With the NBA Draft withdrawal deadline passing late last week, college basketball rosters are mostly set ahead of the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

After months of way-too-early top 25 rankings with incomplete information and rosters, we now have enough data for legitimately informed way-too-early top 25 rankings. ESPN released its latest way-too-early rankings<\/a> earlier this week with Tennessee landing as one of the last teams.<\/p>\n

ESPN ranks Tennessee No. 23 in its rankings after the Vols lost five of their top six players from last season\u2019s Elite Eight team but added talent from both the transfer portal and prep recruiting ranks.<\/p>\n

\u201cTennessee has been busy reloading the roster, with top-five recruit Nate Ament\u00a0and Maryland transfer\u00a0Ja\u2019Kobi Gillespie representing two of the most impactful newcomers for any team in the country,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Jeff Borzello wrote.<\/a> \u201cAment has incredible long-term upside, while Gillespie was among the best point guards in college basketball this past season. Louisiana Tech transfer Amaree Abram\u00a0also adds shooting.<\/p>\n

Rick Barnes has strong frontcourt depth, with\u00a0Jaylen Carey\u00a0(Vanderbilt) joining starter\u00a0Felix Okpara\u00a0and reserves\u00a0Cade Phillips\u00a0and\u00a0J.P. Estrella. The Vols need more, though, with starters\u00a0Zakai Zeigler,\u00a0Chaz Lanier,\u00a0Jahmai Mashack\u00a0and\u00a0Igor Milicic Jr.\u00a0and reserves\u00a0Jordan Gainey\u00a0and\u00a0Darlinstone Dubar all gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

More From RTI:\u00a0National Analyst Says Tennessee Basketball Is An Offseason Loser, Explains Why<\/a><\/p>\n

Tennessee dropped three spots from ESPN\u2019s last update in May. Gonzaga and Alabama each moved up and ahead of Tennessee. Kansas remained in the same spot with the Vols falling behind them.<\/p>\n

The Vols are the sixth highest ranked SEC team in ESPN\u2019s rankings, coming in behind No. 2 Florida, No. 9 Kentucky, No. 11 Arkansas, No. 14 Auburn and No. 17 Alabama. ESPN lists Texas as one of five teams that are \u201cnext in line\u201d but outside of the top 25.<\/p>\n

Under Rick Barnes\u2019 guidance, Tennessee has been one of the SEC\u2019s top programs in recent years. The Vols have made it to the NCAA Tournament seven straight times, the Sweet 16 three straight times and have claimed three SEC titles over the last eight seasons.<\/p>\n

While the Vols lost may of their top players from last season, their front court remains largely intact. Felix Okpara and Cade Phillips are back as is J.P. Estrella after missing almost the entirety of last season with a foot injury. Tennessee bolstered its front court by adding Vanderbilt transfer Jaylen Carey.<\/p>\n

In the backcourt, Maryland point guard transfer Ja\u2019Kobi Gillespie is the lead man with Tennessee still trying to figure out its best option beside him at the two-spot. Five-star freshman Nate Ament projects as the Vols\u2019 starting three-man next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo By Andrew Ferguson\/Tennessee Athletics With the NBA Draft withdrawal deadline passing late last week, college basketball rosters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,130,18338,18339,231,772,1544,7926,1919],"class_list":{"0":"post-81318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-jakobi-gillespie","12":"tag-nate-ament","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-basketball","15":"tag-ncaab","16":"tag-rick-barnes","17":"tag-tennessee-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114637791836276360","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81318","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=81318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}