The Quiet, Strong Finish for Felix Okpara
Tennessee's second-year big is playing his best basketball at the best time.
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No. 25 Tennessee has had an odd 2025-26 season. Barring a major surprise, the Volunteers will go into the Men’s NCAA Tournament with their lowest seed since the 2020-21 season. Tennessee got upset as a five-seed versus a twelve-seed, Oregon State, in the first round of the tournament that year. Tennessee could make it to the Sweet Sixteen, or they could get upset in the Round of 64 — neither would be all that surprising. One of the key, perhaps overlooked, players who will play a big part in Tennessee’s postseason success is Felix Okpara.
Okpara has had a bit of an odd final season in Knoxville. Offensively, his usage rate is close to what it was a season ago. As brilliant a lead guard as Ja’Kobi Gillespie has been for the Volunteers this season, No. 6 in overall BPA per EvanMiya, the former Greeneville High School star is a stark contrast to former Vols great lead guard Zakai Zeigler. The Lob Connection, in particular, between Zeigler and Okpara was stronger and more comfortable. And yet, Okpara’s usage rate, his scoring, his rebounding, his field goal percentage, etc., mostly mirror the former Ohio State Buckeye’s first season in orange.
Some of Okpara’s metrics are quite different than last season at Tennessee. His offensive rating is 124.5, the highest of his four-year college career. His defensive rating is 103, also the highest of his four-year college career. He’s also playing really good basketball for the Vols over the last month. He’s averaging eight boards a night over the last month, to go along with three games where he scored 15 or more points. He has seven blocks over his last four SEC games. Okpara was just named to the SEC All-Defensive team, too.
Tennessee is 15th in defensive rating, per KenPom, its lowest mark since the 2020-21 season. Tennessee’s scoring droughts can be frustrating at times, but the Vols falling out of the top-10 defensively is more of the reason this year’s team is staring a five seed in the NCAA Tournament. It’s not just the defensive drop-off that has plagued Tennessee at times this year — part of it is bad injury luck, part of it is being a bit too thin in the backcourt, and part of it is that it’s really hard to sustain the elite level of success head men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes has had over the last four seasons.
If the Vols are going to push for three-straight Elite Eights, Barnes’ bigs are going to have to dominate more than just on the offensive glass. The Vols miss Cade Phillips’ physicality inside, and you wonder what Barnes’ rotation inside would have looked like over the last month or two had he been healthy and available all season. You have seen flashes from Jaylen Carey and DeWayne Brown. JP Estrella has scored 20 points in back-to-back games and has had four fouls or more in a game only once since February 1. Barnes has needed Okpara to be his steady Eddie, and he has been that for him for the majority of this season. Without Phillips and without Zeigler leading the point of attack on offense and defense, Okpara has had a lot more on his plate to make it all work for the Vols.
You can see it in his NET rating, and you can see it when opposing players make the mistake of challenging him at the rim. Okpara continues to be Barnes’ most reliable big man and his defensive anchor this season. You wonder where the Vols’ defensive rating would be without him, but it’s fair to project that it’d be far lower than 15th nationally.
Okpara doesn’t shoot threes, he doesn’t demand the ball inside, he’s not going to account for a lot of assists, but he’s been a winning player for Tennessee once again this season. He’s also playing his basketball at the best time for Tennessee, something the Vols and the rest of the bigs around him need as Tennessee starts its SEC Tournament journey this afternoon against Auburn.