Rick Barnes wants more offense out of his roster. The Tennessee head coach made that clear over the weekend, and it fits in with the major roster turnover that the Vols have experienced over the last month.

And the numbers back up a massive change in that department for the 2026-27 season for Tennessee.

A total of 11 players are heading out of the program through graduation, the transfer portal, and Nate Ament heading to the NBA Draft. Seven players are coming into the program via the transfer portal.

The incoming seven players’ total aggregate points per game total last year was 107.3. The outgoing total among the 11 former Vols is 80.6.

Tennessee’s inbound transfer portal group’s per game scoring average dwarfs the outgoing total

Barnes has a natural scorer in Wake Forest transfer Juke Harris, who committed to the Vols on his social media accounts on Monday morning. He averaged 21.4 points per game last year for the Demon Deacons.

Barnes said he wants guys who can go create scoring chances and don’t have to be led so much to do so. Now he has a number of players who fit that bill, including Notre Dame guard Jalen Haralson and VCU guard Terrence Hill, Jr.

“This year, we knew that we wanted more offense,” said Barnes. “We didn’t want to really rely on two or three guys. We felt like we needed to get some guys that as it gets down to the end of the shot clock [they can create scoring opportunities]. We don’t want to coach these guys on every play — we want some guys that can go create offense and some guys that can break down defenses for you and get things done.

“We’ve never been a staff that wants to joystick the game. We like to teach basketball. We want to see flow. On dead balls, you certainly have a chance to call on guys’ numbers, those type of things. And in the flow of the game, we want to be more lethal. We wanted to get versatility. We didn’t set out to say we’re going to get a point guard or a two guard. Because we look at it a lot like what I think the NBA does today. There are three positions: you’ve got your ball guards, you’ve got your wings, and you’ve got your front line.”

This could go down as Tennessee’s most skillful group of players in program history, particularly when they’re trying to put the ball in the basket. Defense is rarely a problem with his teams, so perhaps this could be the added element needed to finally get the program over the hump in March.

It’s a while until basketball season starts, but the optimism will be off the charts on Rocky Top until then.