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Nate Ament is Tennessee Basketball's highest-ranked commitment in program history

IMG_3593by: Grant Ramey04/20/25GrantRamey
Tennessee Basketball | Andrew Ferguson, Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee Basketball | Andrew Ferguson, Tennessee Athletics

Tennessee Basketball set a new program record on Sunday afternoon with the commitment of five-star small forward Nate Ament. He’s the highest-ranked prospect to commit to the Vols during the ranking era.

Ament, the 6-foot-9 small forward from Virginia, is the No. 3 overall prospect in the 2025 class in the On3 ratings. He’s the No. 2 small forward and the No. 1 overall player in the state of Virginia.

Scotty Hopson was ranked No. 5 overall by Rivals in 2005 and Tobias Harris was was ranked No. 6 overall in the 2011 class. Harris was also the No. 2 small forward nationally and the No. 1 player in the state of New York.

Ament committed to Tennessee on Sunday after picking the Vols over Duke, Kentucky, Louisville and Arkansas.

Nate Ament is Tennessee’s seventh five-star commit under Rick Barnes

Ament is the seventh five-star commitment for Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes and the first since Julian Phillips in the 2022 class. Phillips was ranked No. 13 overall. He was the No. 4 small forward and the No. 1 player out of the state of South Carolina. 

Barnes signed five-star point guard Kennedy Chandler and five-star power forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield in the 2021 class Chandler was the No. 12 overall player in the country, the No. 2 point guard nationally and the No. 1 overall player in the state of Tennessee. Huntley-Hatfield was ranked as high as No. 21 in the class.

Barnes signed two five-stars in the 2020 class, too, in Jaden Springer and Keon Johnson. Springer was ranked No. 10 overall and Johnson was No. 16 nationally. Springer was the No. 2 shooting guard and Johnson was ranked No. 4 at the position. 

Johnson was the No. 1 overall player in the state of Tennessee and Springer was the No. 1 overall player in the state of North Carolina.

Josiah-Jordan James was also a five-star prospect in the 2019 class as ranked by ESPN and Rivals.

Nate Ament gives Tennessee six additions in 2025 class

Ament joins a Tennessee recruiting class that includes four-star shooting guard Amari Evans, four-star center Dewayne Brown and three-star point guard Troy Henderson. 

The 6-foot-5, 204-pound Evans is ranked No. 68 overall. Brown is No. 100 nationally and Henderson, who signed with the Vols last week, is ranked No. 248 overall.

Tennessee has added two players out of the NCAA Transfer Portal so far in Maryland point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Vanderbilt power forward Jaylen Carey.

Gillespie started all 36 games at Maryland this season, averaging 14.7 points and 4.8 assists in 31.6 minutes per game while shooting 45.3% from the floor and 40.7% from the 3-point line, where he made 87 of 214 attempts. 

He’s a Greeneville, Tenn. native, who started his college basketball career at Belmont, averaging 17.2 points, 4.2 assists and 2.2 steals in 31.4 minutes per game as a sophomore at Belmont in 2023-24.

Carey, the 6-foot-8, 245-pound sophomore, averaged 8.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in 20.2 minutes per game at Vanderbilt this season. 

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