Tennessee Basketball: 2020-21 season preview for the Volunteers

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - MARCH 28: Tennessee Volunteers fans reacts against the Purdue Boilermakers during overtime of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

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Tennessee Basketball Yves Pons (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /

A look at the Tennessee Basketball starting five

At Tennessee, the two seniors Fulkerson and Pons have two of the starting spots for Barnes. Pons is the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year and offensively averaged 10.8 points and grabbed 5.4 rebounds.

Fulkerson is a versatile forward at 6’9 who has the ability to post up but has enough of a handle to be able to initiate offense from the top of the key. Although I expect him to come off the bench (at least to start the year) graduate transfer EJ Anosike is more than capable to start after the 6’7 245lb. forward averaged 15.7 points and 11.6 rebounds for Sacred Heart last season.

Two of the guards should be sophomores Josiah-Jordan James and 6’3 Santiago Vescovi from Uruguay by the way of Australia. The two made 45 starts last season and were thrown into the fire when Lamonte Turner went down with a season-ending injury. That injury may end up being a blessing in disguise as both Vescovi and Jordan James got valuable experience.

Now with a year under their belt, the guard play should be a lot smoother this year and if Jordan James can be a little more efficient offensively and Vescovi can improve at the defensive end, the Vols’ potential will be even higher.

The final starting spot should come from Barnes’ No. 4 ranked recruiting class, and the best bet to take the spot is 6’4 Jaden Springer who is a five-star recruit from Florida who isn’t a polished two-way basketball player yet by any means, but his athleticism is through the roof and he won’t look out of place in the SEC.

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