Tennessee Jumps In ESPN's Top 25 Poll
Earlier this week, ESPN updated their 2023 way-to-early power rankings with the transfers gained by each team in the portal incorporated into it. Staff writer Jeff Borzello did the ranking. He spends his career mostly as a basketball recruiting analyst.
The portal closes for all teams on May 11th, and teams are starting to get their rosters in order now, with the NBA draft also coming up soon.
ESPN placed Tennessee in their top ten at 7. They are just ahead of Gonzaga, who is in 8th, and right behind Kansas, who sits in 6th. They are the highest-ranked SEC team in the ranking. The next two highest ones are Arkansas, who scraped into the top ten at 10th, and Kentucky, who sits behind them at 11th. Alabama (12th), Texas A&M (17th), and Auburn (one of Borzello's "next in line" teams) are the other SEC schools on the list.
Borzello also seems to be very encouraged by the Volunteers' active transfer portal presence. He put Northern Colorado transfer Dalton Knecht and Harvard transfer Chris Ledlum in the projected starting lineup. This was a difference from his last starting lineup in his older rankings, which had the Volunteers ranked 23rd in the country. Borzello states, "Tennessee is certainly one of the biggest portal winners of the offseason thus far...[Tennessee] should have more perimeter pop this season."
Ledlum and Knecht were decent shooters at their former schools, and having them in the starting lineup, along with a returning Santiago Vescovi, shows the potential the Vols have to make it rain from three-point range next season. The worldwide leader in sports is definitely thinking highly of the Vols for next year.
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