Saturday’s 76–52 victory for the No. 1 Tennessee Volunteers over the Arkansas Razorbacks was the perfect illustration of an unlikely yet hardly debatable reality in men’s college basketball: Nobody’s winning in the transfer portal like the Vols.
A year after Dalton Knecht emerged from anonymity with the Northern Colorado Bears into a first-team All-American with the Vols, Tennessee may somehow have one-upped itself in the portal for 2024–25. On Saturday, Tennessee’s three transfer starters combined for 52 points—matching Arkansas’s entire total—in the latest example of the Vols’ transfer dominance. More than half of those points came from Chaz Lanier, the North Florida Ospreys transfer recruited to help fill the scoring void left by Knecht’s pro departure, who has lived up to the hype and more through two months.
Finding one star like Knecht? Hard. Doing it two years in a row? Nearly impossible. And yet the Vols have plucked this season’s leading scorer in the loaded SEC off North Florida’s roster from a year ago. It’s a story even Lanier, a Nashville native, has trouble believing is real sometimes.
“When I’m out in Knoxville, I get recognized, people want to take pictures with me,” Lanier says. “Just a year ago, nobody knew my name. Everything in my life has basically changed in less than a year. I definitely have to pinch myself a lot.”
Lanier didn’t even average over five points per game until his senior year at North Florida, spending his first three seasons as a part-time starter in a low-usage role. He then exploded in 2023–24 into a near 20-point-per-game scorer on ludicrous efficiency, inviting attention from NBA scouts and top college programs about a potential transfer. Lanier considered the BYU Cougars and Kentucky Wildcats, but returned to his home state to play for the Vols.
Picking Tennessee and following in Knecht’s footsteps meant the comparisons to the current Los Angeles Laker were inevitable. But internally, coach Rick Barnes and the Vols staff did their best to avoid the link being drawn between the two.
“I’ve never been in the business of comparing players and saying, ‘Hey, we need you to come in and be Dalton Knecht.’ We need you to be who you are, because who you are is gonna help us,” Barnes says. “We needed to fill that [scorer] role, but I don’t think you’re saying, ‘Hey, you gotta come in here and do exactly what [Knecht] did.’ They’re different players. They go about it differently, you know? They have different personalities.”
That said, Lanier says Knecht showed the “blueprint” for accomplishing what he had hoped to do: transferring up into the big-time college basketball and leveling up his game. Knecht hadn’t even been first-team all-league in the Big Sky; a year later he was No. 2 to Zach Edey for national player of the year. Lanier’s averaging more points, shooting a better percentage from three and taking more shots per game at Tennessee than he did at North Florida. And he’s contributing to winning in the process: Tennessee is the nation’s last remaining undefeated team and looks like a legitimate national title contender.
“I scored 20 [points per game] at my last school, so I wanted to join something that was bigger than me, where I could win, where the whole team could flourish and get the recognition that everybody deserves,” Lanier says. “I saw the fit here at Tennessee. Everyone here is a star in their role.”
All that was music to Barnes’s ears. He says one of the many things that sold him was Lanier insisting he was hoping to find a strong team and program, not just a place to put up numbers and showcase his skills for pro scouts. Sometimes teammates like senior point guard Zakai Zeigler even have to nudge Lanier to shoot more.
“Every day they’re harping on it,” Lanier said Monday in a local media availability. If I pass up a shot, Zakai’s like, ‘Man, just shoot the ball. We don’t care, it helps me get more assists.’ That’s just what the team needs.”
Lanier’s role may be the most visible given his extremely high offensive usage, but he’s not the only home run Tennessee hit in the portal this offseason. Former Charlotte 49ers forward Igor Milicic Jr. has been one of the top glue guys in the country this season, averaging over 10 points, eight rebounds and two assists per game. He had 13 points, 18 rebounds and five assists in a stat-sheet-stuffing afternoon against the Razorbacks over the weekend. And then there’s Felix Okpara, an Ohio State Buckeyes transfer who’s been one of the SEC’s best shot blockers and filled a critical void after the Vols’ top two centers from a year ago transferred. All three, and even bench scorer Darlinstone Dubar (a Hofstra Pride transfer), have fit into their roles perfectly, an incredibly difficult task in this era of near-constant roster movement.
Barnes says that all starts with returners who’ve already established the program’s culture, in this case a pair of rare four-year Vols in Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack.
“We want recruits to come in, spend time with our players and we want our players to be the one to say, ‘He’s one of us, we want to play with him,’ ” Barnes says.
It helps, of course, to have a coach with nearly five decades of experience in not sugarcoating things for starry-eyed recruits.
“[Barnes] lets you know your role, and then when you get here, you’re going to be doing exactly that,” Lanier says. “Everybody has a clear understanding. If you’re trying to do anything outside of what you do, it’s going to hurt the team and we’re going to hold you accountable.”
Barnes is quick to deflect credit for his recent transfer portal dominance to the rest of his coaching staff. “Anything that we’re doing good in recruiting, my assistant coaches are doing it,” Barnes says. But in a world where many older coaches are bemoaning recent changes to how teams are built and some even walking away from the game because of it, Barnes has found a way to thrive, with the program’s second-ever trip to the Elite Eight a year ago and realistic aspirations of a first Final Four in 2025. His view on the current state of roster-building?
“Whatever the rules are, you adjust to them and you go from there,” Barnes says. “You have to do what you need to do to continue to keep your program [winning] on a consistent basis.”
As for Lanier, don’t be shocked if his star continues to grow. Through 14 games he’s even outpacing Knecht (who exploded during conference play a year ago) in scoring. In a few months, we’ll be talking about the Vols needing “the next Chaz Lanier” … and Lanier makes a pretty compelling case for why top portal prospects will be breaking down Tennessee’s door this time around.
“Rocky Top is a special place,” Lanier says. “The coaches pour into their players, they bring the best out of you, they want the best for you, and you’re surrounded by good character people who are going to hold you accountable and hold you to what you said you wanted for yourself. Nobody’s going to let you slip. We’re all in it together.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Chaz Lanier Gives Tennessee Men’s Hoops Another Unlikely Transfer Portal Triumph.