A Special Friday Rundown In Regard To Tennessee Basketball
Image: USA Today
By Cody McClure
It has been a busy week concerning Tennessee basketball news.
We’ll start with recapping the NBA Draft, which has taken place over the past couple of days.
The big name for Tennessee when it came to the draft, which most expected, was Chaz Lanier. The VFL guard was taken in the second round by the Detroit Pistons at No. 37 overall.
“Vol Nation… I love you. Thank you for changing my life,” Lanier said.
That alone would have made a successful draft night for Rick Barnes and the Vol Hoops program, but then came the big surprise of the night.
With the very last pick of the second round, at No. 59, Jahmai Mashack was selected by the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Mashack was the best defensive player in college basketball this year,” said Sam Vecenie of The Athletic. “And might be one of the best perimeter defenders on the planet right now. This is not an exaggeration.”
Pretty cool.
Also, Igor Milicic is getting a shot at the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers via an Exhibit 10 contract while Zakai Zeigler is set to play in the NBA Summer League.
And in other news, Nate Ament, Tennessee’s expected upcoming star, was recently projected as a top-five pick in Jonathan Givony’s Draft Express 2026 NBA Mock Draft:
Update on Jordan Gainey:
And finally — how about Joe Lunardi and the crew at ESPN slotting Tennessee as a projected No. 2 seed in the most recent “too-early” bracketology.
Right now the Vols are a projected No. 2 in the West (San Jose) region.
A theoretical Elite 8 matchup would be against top-seeded Duke.
Although, quite a bit will probably change between now and then. Considering, you know, that the season hasn’t even started yet.
But shoutout to Lunardi for paying a little respect to the SEC’s best program (arguably).