There are a lot of different reasons why Tennessee secured a No. 2 seed in last season’s NCAA Tournament, won 27 times and advanced all the way to the Elite Eight.
(It’s never one thing.)
But, undeniably, the main reason the Vols accomplished everything they accomplished last season was Dalton Knecht — the 6-foot-6 guard whom Tennessee coach Rick Barnes pulled from the mid-major ranks via the transfer portal two offseasons ago. Knecht, fresh off of a two-year stint at Northern Colorado, averaged 21.7 points for the Vols last season while shooting 39.7% from 3-point range en route to securing SEC Player of the Year honors and becoming the 17th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
He was great.
And, man, it looks like Barnes might’ve done it again.
Have you seen Chaz Lanier?
Lanier, like Knecht, enrolled at Tennessee after previously starring at the mid-major level — specifically at North Florida, where Lanier averaged 19.7 points last season while shooting 44.0% from 3-point range. He was First Team All-Atlantic Sun and now appears on his way to also being named First Team All-SEC, especially after what he did late Friday in the championship game of the Baha Mar Championship.
Final score: Tennessee 77, Baylor 62.
Lanier took 16 shots, made nine of them and finished with 25 points — all of which came in the first half while the Vols jumped to a 28-point lead that proved insurmountable. The 6-4 guard was 7 of 10 from the 3-point line. He’s now shooting 54.8% from beyond the arc on 7.0 attempts per contest this season.
“Yeah, when the first shot goes in, all the jitters that you have leading up to the game, they just all go out of your body,” said Lanier, who sank his first five shots against Baylor before discussing the effort with the Vol Network. “So it was good seeing that first shot go in.”
Friday’s developments — first Tennessee’s overwhelming beatdown of Baylor, then Duke’s impressive upset at Arizona — caused some unusual movement in Saturday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Kansas remains No. 1 for the 20th straight day of this season. In an effort to reward Tennessee for starting 6-0 with all six wins coming by at least 15 points, I moved the Vols up to No. 9 in the Top 25 And 1. Obviously, I also wanted to reward Duke for winning 69-55 at Arizona. But I can’t rationalize moving Duke ahead of an undefeated Kentucky team that owns a neutral-court victory over the Blue Devils, so I moved Kentucky up to No. 10 and Duke up to No. 11. And all of that movement is what caused Purdue, Alabama and Arkansas to each be pushed down in the rankings, no fault of their own.
Creighton has been removed from the Top 25 And 1 because of Friday’s 74-63 loss at home to Nebraska. The Bluejays were replaced by Pitt, which is 6-0 heading into a game with Wisconsin. The Panthers are 18th in the Top 25 And 1. The Badgers are 15th. They’ll meet Sunday at 5:30 pm ET on CBS Sports Network.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
In: Pitt
Out: Creighton
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