Tennessee Basketball has now added two of the four most efficient scorers from last season
Replacing Dalton Knecht will be impossible for Rick Barnes and his Tennessee basketball program. The Vols struck gold when they landed the high-scoring Northern Colorado wing out of the NCAA Transfer Portal.
All he did in his one season in Knoxville was prove to be a generational talent on the offensive end.
He averaged 21.7 points per game over 36 games last season and led the SEC in conference games at 25.5 points per game. He was a consensus First Team All-American, the SEC Player of the Year and First Team All-SEC.
He finished second in Tennessee for single-season scoring with 780 points, behind the 806 Allan Houston scored in 1990-91, while taking the Vols back to the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history.
He scored 39 or more points in three games, 35 or more six times, 30 or more in eight games and 25 or more 13 times.
He carried a Tennessee offense that finished 28th in adjusted efficiency according to KenPom.com, after the Vols finished 64th in the same metric a year earlier.
Still, despite all those numbers that remain hard to believe, Barnes and his staff did make two big moves to help fill in the void left by Knecht’s departure for the NBA.
The Vols went back to the transfer portal and added two of the top four players in scoring efficiency from last season, according to Synergy Basketball.
The most efficient offensive players in college basketball this season: pic.twitter.com/udikHLVmlD
— Synergy Basketball (@SynergySST) April 10, 2024
On Friday, North Florida guard Chaz Lanier committed to Tennessee after leading all of college basketball last season in offensive efficiency, scoring 1.20 points per possession after averaging 19.5 points per game on 16.3 possessions per game.
In April Tennessee added Hofstra wing Darlinstone Dubar, the fourth-most efficient scorer last season, averaging 1.15 points per possession, scoring 17.5 points per game on 15.2 possessions per game.
“(Dubar is) a versatile player who can excel at multiple positions,” Barnes said after Dubar signed with Tennessee on April 18, “he is an excellent 3-point shooter who can also knock down midrange shots and finish at the rim.”
‘We’re looking for somebody to make the same kind of jump that (Knecht) made’
Dubar, who spent the last three seasons at Hofstra after starting his collegiate career at Iowa State, shot 39.9% from the 3-point line last season and a career-high 40.4% two years ago. He shot 53.9% from the field last season, too.
Lanier’s 19.7 points per game came on 51.0% shooting from the field and 44.0% shooting from the 3-point line, both career-high numbers.
Knecht shot 45.8% from the field and 39.7% from the 3-point line during his one-and-done season at Tennessee, going from a relatively quiet prospect in the transfer portal to a likely lottery pick in this summer’s NBA Draft.
“Whether it’s someone in your program right now,” Barnes said earlier this month, “someone we’ve recruited or someone we’ve had, we’re looking for somebody to make the same kind of jump that (Knecht) made.
“None of us knew that he was going to be able to do what he did. And hopefully someone else can make the same jump he did.”
