Rick Barnes has the perfect sales pitch to add to his recruiting toolkit for Tennessee basketball
The legendary coach’s recent NBA Draft resume speaks for itself.
It hasn’t been too difficult for Rick Barnes to convince top-tier talent to come to Knoxville over the last several years. From Nate Ament to Dalton Knecht to Chaz Lanier to Ja’Kobi Gillespie and many others, Barnes has pulled difference makers from the high school ranks and the transfer portal that have made the Vols one of the most consistently strong programs in the nation.
While we are in a new NIL era that requires money, Barnes is able to offer something that few other schools have been able to match in recent years: NBA dreams. The Vols have been elite at putting players in the NBA Draft over close to the last decade.
In fact, over the last eight years, Tennessee is just one of three schools to place 13 have 13 or more of their players drafted.
Tennessee is one of 3 schools to have 13+ players selected in the NBA Draft the last 8 years
Three of those came this month. Ament was taken 13th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks. Gillespie went No. 42 overall to the San Antonio Spurs. Felix Okpara was taken at No. 46 by the Orlando Magic and was thereafter traded to the Washington Wizards.
Ament is the latest of five first-round picks to go under Barnes since 2019. Grant Williams was taken by the Boston Celtics at No. 22 overall in 2019. Keon Johnson (No. 21 by the New York Knicks) and Jaden Springer (No. 28 by the Philadelphia 76ers) followed in 2021. Knecht was taken by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2024 at No. 17.
The NBA Draft is tough to break into for a college player. There are only two rounds, and international players are consistently in competition for spots as well. As such, what Barnes has done being one the best at getting his players drafted speaks to the great job he and his staff have done at evaluating talent, as well as developing that talent on the court.
Money talks, and NIL is whispering to a lot of young players. However, the NBA is the ultimate goal, and few coaches can crack open that door better than Barnes.