Tennessee Basketball: Why Chaz Lanier is the most important team transfer for 2024-25

Things are pretty good in Knoxville, as Tennessee won another regular season title in the SEC and advanced all the way to the Elite Eight. Despite coming up just short against Purdue for a trip to the Final Four, the Volunteers showed fantastic skill on both sides of the ball, really riding the efforts of Dalton Knecht paired with an elite defense.

There will be a different look next season, as Knecht and his 21 points a game are in the NBA, while Jonas Aidoo transferred to Arkansas and a few other faces are gone. Zakai Zigler and Jordan Gainey will be back again but it’s the offseason additions that created excitement for the Volunteers.

Rick Barnes and his staff lured quite the haul using the Transfer Portal. They rebuilt the frontcourt with talented Ohio State center Felix Okpara and a pair of forwards, getting Darlinstone Dubar out of Hofstra and Igor Milicic from Charlotte. The lone backcourt addition could become the most important of the group.

We’re talking about Chaz Lanier, the Nashville native who spent the last four years in the A-Sun at North Florida. After three years mostly coming off the bench, Lanier took a major step forward as a senior, putting up 19.7 points and 4.8 rebounds per game while knocking down 44% of his 3-pointers. This offensive explosion made him one of the most desirable shooting guards in the Transfer Portal.

When examining that production, it’s easy to compare him to Knecht. After all, Knecht had exploded onto the scene in his final year at Northern Colorado before taking it to another level with the Volunteers. It’s unfair to lobby those kinds of expectations onto Lanier, though he does have the talent to make a major impact in his final year of eligibility.

While the expectation won’t be for Lanier to come to town and put up 20 points a game, if he can replicate that same kind of shooting success against tougher defenses then Tennessee has something special here. Not only was he one of the nation’s top 3-point shooters, Lanier has also been elite from the charity stripe and knocked down more than 60% of shots inside the arc as well. He pairs well with the returning talent and new faces in the frontcourt, providing a much-needed shooting touch.

Every significant mid-major scorer who transfers into a power conference is going to be compared to what Knecht did last season, but that doesn’t mean Lanier won’t be successful if he doesn’t copy that level of production. He’ll slide into a major role with the Volunteers, who hope he can contribute on defense as well. Does Tennessee now have what it takes for another deep postseason run?