Terrific Tennessee Tuesday: Vols 2025-26 Backcourt Depth

Why the addition of Ethan Burg is a sneaky important final offseason addition for Tennessee men's head basketball coach Rick Barnes

It may have taken a while, but I finally feel comfortable with Tennessee’s backcourt depth going into the 2025-26 college basketball season. Sure, had the Volunteers been able to land Maryland transfer combo guard Rodney Rice or Virginia transfer Isaac McKneely early on in the spring transfer portal window, I would have felt a lot more comfortable about Tennessee’s backcourt depth a while ago. However, Rice ended up at USC and McKneely ended up at Louisville.

So it goes.

Instead of adding a big fish to replace Chaz Lanier at the two guard spot next season, the Vols will roll into next season with an impressive array of options. Ethan Burg is now officially in the boat for the Vols. He will compete for minutes at the two along with Amaree Abram, Troy Henderson, Bishop Boswell, Clarence Massamba, and Troy Henderson. Who knows, maybe head men’s basketball head coach Rick Barnes experiments with Nate Ament at the two at times next season as well.

Who knows how this competition for minutes will ultimately play out before the regular season tips off in November, but it’s the competition I’ll be most enamored with. Tennessee has reached the Elite Eight in back-to-back seasons under Barnes. With Ament and Gillespie in the boat, it’s not overzealous to forecast the Vols as a serious threat to reach their first Final Four in school history next season. And this is all without longtime leader Zakai Zeigler guiding the ship after he was not granted an additional year of eligibility to return for a fifth season in Knoxville.

It was fair for folks to wonder if it was realistic to expect the Vols to be able to remain in contention for a national championship in the immediate aftermath of the Zeigler Era at Tennessee, but here we are. It is realistic to expect Barnes’ team to be in contention to reach the Final Four next season and maybe even a national championship, too, if Ament and Gillespie reach their skyhigh ceilings on Rocky Top.