Tennessee basketball filled half of its scholarship spots in a flurry of offseason roster moves.
The Vols, who are building their roster for head coach Rick Barnes' 10th season, have three spots remaining and three scholarship spots available.
Here's the latest on Tennessee's offseason roster composition.
What could happen next for the Tennessee basketball roster?
Tennessee will likely use two of the scholarships and keep the third, which has been the pattern in the past under Barnes.
They desperately need a high-scoring guard to complete their roster with a combination of backcourt scorers and tall scorers. North Florida's Chaz Lanier matches his talent in the portal. Lanier averaged 19.7 points and shot 44.4 percent from 3-point range for the Ospreys. Lanier, who is 6-foot-4 and weighs 199 pounds, played high school basketball at Ensworth School in Nashville. Competition for Lanier will be fierce.
Adding a backup point guard is still needed, and a player with multiple years of eligibility is preferable considering Zakai Zeigler will enter his senior season as the only point guard on the roster. This has been a gap in his UT roster the past two seasons, and it proved costly in the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee had no hesitation under Barnes in continuing his scholarship through the end of the summer. That habit led to the addition of Zeigler late in the 2021 class and Tobe Awaka late in the 2022 class. This also allows UT to bring in Santiago Vescovi midseason in the 2019-20 season. However, entering the season with multiple open scholarships is not a desirable situation for the Vols, so filling two is important.
Tennessee basketball team addresses transfer portal needs
Tennessee needs to inject some offensive power into its roster again and has entered the transfer portal. It accomplished that and became much bigger at the same time.
UT acquired Darlingston Duvar, a 6-8 guard, from Hofstra and Igor Milicic Jr., a 6-10 forward, from Charlotte. Duver averaged 17.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and shot 39.9 percent from 3-point range. Milicic averaged 12.8 points and 8.5 rebounds in his junior season at Charlotte. His 3-point shooting percentage was 37.6%.
Tracker:Tennessee basketball transfer tracker: Who's on Rick Barnes' roster, who's out?
Last season, Duver and Milicic combined for 129 3-pointers.
The Vols had a big post need after their top two post players moved on. He succeeded with the addition of Felix Okpara from Ohio State. Okpara, 6-11, is an excellent shot blocker and physical post player. He played in 70 games over two seasons at Ohio State, averaging 5.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks. In his second year as a starter, he averaged 6.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and blocked 82 shots.
Who will return to Tennessee basketball?
The backbone of the University of Tennessee's roster is its returning backcourt. Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack are entering their senior seasons as leaders of the team. Zeigler is considered to be a preseason All-American. He is the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year, an award Maciak agrees with as he is an elite defender.
Rising sophomores JP Estrella and Cade Phillips return in the post. Considering his play late in the season, Estrella looks like a future star. Guard Cameron Carr is also a sophomore and has a huge upside offensively. Senior guard Jordan Gainey is expected to contribute in scoring off the bench and showed he can knock down jumpers with consistency after transferring from USC Upstate.
Incoming guard Bishop Boswell is the only signee in the 2024 class.
Mike Wilson covers the University of Tennessee athletics department. Email michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow us on Twitter @.Posted by Mike Wilson. If you like Mike's coverage, consider subscribing to him digitally for full access.