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Just five days after their home exhibition win against UCF, the AP preseason #6 Duke Blue Devils play a road exhibition in Knoxville against the #18 Tennessee Volunteers. The game takes place Sunday evening at 7pm ET in the Food City Center. Ticket sales opened the morning of August 15 to the general public and closed a few minutes later, with the 21,678-seat venue sold out. Assuming that you're not sitting in one of those seats, you can watch the game on ESPN2 or stream it (streaming link, listen, live stats).
In writing these pregame threads, my approach is simple: you mostly know Duke, so let's get to know the opponent. Tennessee is the first of four SEC teams on Duke's schedule. (The Blue Devils will face Texas in the regular season opener, Arkansas on Thanksgiving night, and Florida in the ACC-SEC Challenge.) Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes is beginning his 39th season as a head coach, and his 11th in Knoxville. He's not going anywhere, having signed a lifetime contract about 2 months ago.
The SEC Tip-Off took place on October 14-15 in Birmingham; it's a media event for the men's and women's basketball teams, similar to what the ACC did in Charlotte earlier this month. Each head coach holds a press conference to preview their season, and Coach Barnes had his turn to speak to the reporters. ESPN has the SEC+ full replay, or if you prefer, Rocky Top Insider put up a free YouTube version.
Let's take a look at the roster. (Wait, they're *paid* Volunteers now? What is this NIL nonsense?)
Last year of eligibility
6-11 forward Felix Okpara #34 (25.8 mpg for Tennessee in 2024-25)
6-2 guard Grant Hurst #7 (1.2 mpg)
6-4 guard Amaree Abram #77 (32.1 mpg at Louisiana Tech)
6-1 guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie #0 (31.6 mpg at Maryland)
2 years of eligibility
6-9 forward Cade Phillips #12 (15.0 mpg)
6-8 forward Jaylen Carey #23 (20.2 mpg at Vanderbilt)
3 years of eligibility
6-4 guard Bishop Boswell #3 (3.8 mpg)
6-6 guard Campbell Duncan #21 (1.0 mpg)
6-11 forward JP Estrella #15 (10.3 mpg)
5-11 guard Gavin Paull #11 (1.0 mpg)
6-3 guard Ethan Burg #35 (Israel, age 22)
4 years of eligibility
6-10 forward Nate Ament #10 (RSCI #4)
6-5 guard Amari Evans #1 (RSCI #72)
6-9 forward DeWayne Brown II #6 (On3/Rivals Industry #96)
6-5 guard Clarence Massamba #4 (On3/Rivals Industry #185)
6-1 guard Troy Henderson #24 (On3/Rivals Industry #276)
In their Offseason Grades series, The Field of 68 devoted a video to Tennessee, and in the first minute, Rob Dauster provided a handy summary of the team's roster changes.
Rob Dauster: "The Vols lost quite a bit this offseason. I think that they got hit as hard as anybody when it comes to graduation. [Jordan] Gainey is gone. Zakai Ziegler is gone. Chaz Lanier is gone. Jahmai Mashack is gone. Igor Milicic is gone. They did a good job in the portal. Not a great job, but a good job, getting Ja'Kobi Gillespie, Amaree Abram, and Jaylen Carey. They added a good freshman class headlined by none other than Nate Ament, who committed back in May, a five-star, top five kind of talent. And they bring back a couple of solid role pieces and continuity guys in Cade Phillips, Felix Okpara, JP Estrella, and Bishop Boswell."
With that amount of senior leadership last season, the Vols were 30-8 (12-6 in the SEC), and for the second straight NCAA Tournament, they were a 2-seed that went chalk and reached the Elite Eight, taking a 15-7-3-1 path.
Jordan Gainey came off the bench, so Coach Barnes actually retains one starter in Felix Okpara. He's the headliner among 7 returning players. Cade Phillips was in the rotation, averaging about 15 minutes per game. Bishop Boswell, Campbell Duncan, Grant Hurst, and Gavin Paull were deep bench players. JP Estrella averaged rotation-level minutes, but played only 3 games last season before suffering a foot injury. (He has recovered from that, but had a "pretty tough ankle sprain" over the summer which limited his preseason practices.)
Of the three incoming transfers, we'll probably see more of guards Amaree Abram and Ja'Kobi Gillespie, but we're a little more familiar with forward Jaylen Carey for two reasons. First, he's the younger brother of former Duke player Vernon Carey Jr, and there's a family resemblance. Second, he's faced Duke before, as a freshman at James Madison, playing 17 minutes off the bench in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
You may recall that Nate Ament included Duke among his list of finalists, but he's not the only newcomer on this team who chose Knoxville over Durham. Coach Barnes added an international player in the late summer, signing 22-year-old Israeli guard Ethan Burg. Their announcement points out that Duke, Louisville, and Minnesota were among the teams expressing an interest in Burg.
So how do the Vols look right now? We're so early in the 2025-26 season that it's hard to come by any solid information. There was an intrasquad scrimmage open to fans on October 11, and a closed scrimmage one week later against the visiting Ohio State Buckeyes. Regarding the latter event, I wrote whatever I could find in post #41 of the SEC Teams thread. Since then, Tennessee Athletics has posted a short clip of fast-edited highlights.
Discuss the game here.
In writing these pregame threads, my approach is simple: you mostly know Duke, so let's get to know the opponent. Tennessee is the first of four SEC teams on Duke's schedule. (The Blue Devils will face Texas in the regular season opener, Arkansas on Thanksgiving night, and Florida in the ACC-SEC Challenge.) Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes is beginning his 39th season as a head coach, and his 11th in Knoxville. He's not going anywhere, having signed a lifetime contract about 2 months ago.
The SEC Tip-Off took place on October 14-15 in Birmingham; it's a media event for the men's and women's basketball teams, similar to what the ACC did in Charlotte earlier this month. Each head coach holds a press conference to preview their season, and Coach Barnes had his turn to speak to the reporters. ESPN has the SEC+ full replay, or if you prefer, Rocky Top Insider put up a free YouTube version.
Let's take a look at the roster. (Wait, they're *paid* Volunteers now? What is this NIL nonsense?)
Last year of eligibility
6-11 forward Felix Okpara #34 (25.8 mpg for Tennessee in 2024-25)
6-2 guard Grant Hurst #7 (1.2 mpg)
6-4 guard Amaree Abram #77 (32.1 mpg at Louisiana Tech)
6-1 guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie #0 (31.6 mpg at Maryland)
2 years of eligibility
6-9 forward Cade Phillips #12 (15.0 mpg)
6-8 forward Jaylen Carey #23 (20.2 mpg at Vanderbilt)
3 years of eligibility
6-4 guard Bishop Boswell #3 (3.8 mpg)
6-6 guard Campbell Duncan #21 (1.0 mpg)
6-11 forward JP Estrella #15 (10.3 mpg)
5-11 guard Gavin Paull #11 (1.0 mpg)
6-3 guard Ethan Burg #35 (Israel, age 22)
4 years of eligibility
6-10 forward Nate Ament #10 (RSCI #4)
6-5 guard Amari Evans #1 (RSCI #72)
6-9 forward DeWayne Brown II #6 (On3/Rivals Industry #96)
6-5 guard Clarence Massamba #4 (On3/Rivals Industry #185)
6-1 guard Troy Henderson #24 (On3/Rivals Industry #276)
In their Offseason Grades series, The Field of 68 devoted a video to Tennessee, and in the first minute, Rob Dauster provided a handy summary of the team's roster changes.
Rob Dauster: "The Vols lost quite a bit this offseason. I think that they got hit as hard as anybody when it comes to graduation. [Jordan] Gainey is gone. Zakai Ziegler is gone. Chaz Lanier is gone. Jahmai Mashack is gone. Igor Milicic is gone. They did a good job in the portal. Not a great job, but a good job, getting Ja'Kobi Gillespie, Amaree Abram, and Jaylen Carey. They added a good freshman class headlined by none other than Nate Ament, who committed back in May, a five-star, top five kind of talent. And they bring back a couple of solid role pieces and continuity guys in Cade Phillips, Felix Okpara, JP Estrella, and Bishop Boswell."
With that amount of senior leadership last season, the Vols were 30-8 (12-6 in the SEC), and for the second straight NCAA Tournament, they were a 2-seed that went chalk and reached the Elite Eight, taking a 15-7-3-1 path.
Jordan Gainey came off the bench, so Coach Barnes actually retains one starter in Felix Okpara. He's the headliner among 7 returning players. Cade Phillips was in the rotation, averaging about 15 minutes per game. Bishop Boswell, Campbell Duncan, Grant Hurst, and Gavin Paull were deep bench players. JP Estrella averaged rotation-level minutes, but played only 3 games last season before suffering a foot injury. (He has recovered from that, but had a "pretty tough ankle sprain" over the summer which limited his preseason practices.)
Of the three incoming transfers, we'll probably see more of guards Amaree Abram and Ja'Kobi Gillespie, but we're a little more familiar with forward Jaylen Carey for two reasons. First, he's the younger brother of former Duke player Vernon Carey Jr, and there's a family resemblance. Second, he's faced Duke before, as a freshman at James Madison, playing 17 minutes off the bench in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
You may recall that Nate Ament included Duke among his list of finalists, but he's not the only newcomer on this team who chose Knoxville over Durham. Coach Barnes added an international player in the late summer, signing 22-year-old Israeli guard Ethan Burg. Their announcement points out that Duke, Louisville, and Minnesota were among the teams expressing an interest in Burg.
So how do the Vols look right now? We're so early in the 2025-26 season that it's hard to come by any solid information. There was an intrasquad scrimmage open to fans on October 11, and a closed scrimmage one week later against the visiting Ohio State Buckeyes. Regarding the latter event, I wrote whatever I could find in post #41 of the SEC Teams thread. Since then, Tennessee Athletics has posted a short clip of fast-edited highlights.
Discuss the game here.
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