Tennessee basketball clearly has grown tired of its Elite Eight appearances. Head coach Rick Barnes still has a hunger to get the Volunteers over the hurdle. Barnes and the Vols took a big step toward attempting to end its regional semifinals thud Wednesday with a College Basketball Transfer Portal find.
Belmont senior Tyler Lundblade is grad transferring to the Southeastern Conference school, per Joe Tipton of On3/Rivals. Barnes gains more than just a 6-foot-5 guard with experience here. He's landing a reliable shooter who averaged 15.6 points per game this past season. Lundblade also claimed the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year award in the 2025-26 campaign.
The college basketball insider Tipton called Lundblade “one of the best shooters in the portal.” Lundblade also bolted from Belmont after his head coach Casey Alexander took over for Kansas State.
The feeling was Lundblade would head to Manhattan, KS., too to join his coach. Barnes and Tennessee manage to win him over in the end.
This move rises as a crucial one for the 71-year-old head coach. Barnes fully committed himself to returning next season despite his age. Tennessee envisions a Final Four run for 2026-27 now that Barnes is running it back. Yet he'll need to replace a valuable contributor in Knoxville following this March Madness run.
Ja'Kobi Gillespie is leaving after averaging 18.3 PPG to lead the Vols. Gillespie is a senior and officially has run out of NCAA eligibility. Fellow guard Felix Okpara also isn't eligible to return as a fellow senior.
There's additional rumblings prized 2025 freshman signing Nate Ament is leaving. Ament “will test” the NBA Draft waters after dropping 17 points per contest, per Tipton.
But now Barnes has a seasoned sharpshooter lined up to get Tennessee past the round of eight next season.
