NCAA Basketball: Ranking the 6 finalists for Iowa State transfer Tyrese Hunter

4. Tennessee Volunteers

The Volunteers got some good news last week, landing Indiana State transfer wing Tyreke Key, who’ll add to the offense and depth for next season. But there was also bad news, depending on if you believed in the rumors regarding Saint Louis transfer Yuri Collins, who entered the transfer portal last week for a few days, before deciding to come back to them for next season.

There was talk that had Collins fully left, the point guard was going to go to Tennessee. But that’s off the table, making Hunter the official target for the team to replace star freshman Kennedy Chandler, who led them with 13.9 ppg and 4.7 apg last season.

It’s understandable why the Vols would want to add more talent to keep up in the SEC arms race but don’t they already have a starting-caliber point guard on the roster in Zakai Zeigler? The 5’9 guard became the ultimate sparkplug off the bench, averaging 8.8 ppg and 2.7 apg in 22 mpg.

He may be a bit limited offensively and lacks size but an argument can be made that he should start. And with Santiago Vescovi (3.7 apg) coming back, it would be hard to start both Zeigler and Hunter in a hypothetical backcourt. This option would limit how much usage Hunter has potentially and also make Zeigler expendable, which would be the worst-case scenario long-term.