Skip to main content

Rick Barnes details Tennessee Basketball's 'biggest surprise' of the offseason

IMG_3593by: Grant Ramey10/16/25GrantRamey
Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images | Tennessee forward DeWayne Brown II (6) during Tennessee basketball's media day and practice held at Pratt Pavilion on Oct. 9, 2025.
Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images | Tennessee forward DeWayne Brown II (6) during Tennessee basketball's media day and practice held at Pratt Pavilion on Oct. 9, 2025.

Rick Barnes didn’t lose anything in the post from last season. Senior center and rim-protector Felix Okpara is back. So is twitchy junior forward Cade Phillips. So is redshirt sophomore JP Estrella, a wildcard for Tennessee Basketball after missing last season after undergoing foot surgery.  

“Cade can swing out and play some perimeter too because of his ability to guard,” Barnes said Wednesday at SEC media days in Birmingham. “Getting JP back, again, we’re still working him back full speed. I mean, we’ve needed that the last couple of years, obviously. 

“And Felix has improved. I think his confidence, his leadership, is really taking, he’s taken that to a different level.”

Instead of losing big men to the NCAA Transfer Portal, Barnes and his staff added Vanderbilt transfer forward Jaylen Carey from Vanderbilt, after he combined for 32 points and 17 rebounds in two games against the Vols.

“He hurt us more than any post player we played against last year,” Barnes said. “And he has learned to adjust what we’re doing, which is different for him, but we’re excited about that.” 

But after discussing all four bigs in Tennessee’s deep front court, Barnes got to his 6-foot-8, 251-pound freshman addition. And sounded eager to talk about him.

“Probably the biggest surprise is DeWayne Brown,” Barnes said. 

DeWayne Brown was Tennessee’s first commitment in 2025 class

Brown was a four-star prospect and the first commitment in Tennessee’s 2025 recruiting class way back in April 2024. He finished his prep career as the No. 96 overall player in his class. He was the No. 9 center in the country and the No. 1 player out of Hoover High School in Hoover, Ala.

Now, after a spring and summer spent going through Tennessee offseason program, he’s poised to be the fifth man in the post in his first season with the Vols. 

“As a freshman coming in,” Barnes said, “We weren’t exactly sure where — we knew we wanted DeWayne, no question about that, but we weren’t sure how long it would take him to grab ahold of it.”

‘There’s no doubt he’ll be a big part of our rotation’

There wasn’t a rush for Brown to do just that with the fourth other bigs in front of him.

Okpara averaged 7.1 points and 6.4 rebounds in 25.8 minutes per game and had 64 blocks in 38 games his first season at Tennessee, after transferring from Ohio State, and Phillips upped his averages to 4.6 points and 3.5 rebounds in 15.0 minutes per game off the bench, with 33 blocks. 

Estrella made it just three games before undergoing season-ending foot surgery to address an injury that had lingered over the summer. Estrella missed time late this summer after turning his ankle, allowing Brown’s expedited growth to continue.

“I think with JP being out,” Barnes said, “(Brown) had to go up every day pretty much against Felix, which has helped him grow. And there’s no doubt he’ll be a big part of our rotation with those five guys.”