For the second time this offseason, Rick Barnes and his staff have added a transfer to Tennessee’s men’s basketball roster.
Victory Bailey Jr. has announced he will be joining the Vols for his basketball future. Bailey played his first two years of basketball at Oregon and is a 6-foot-4, 190-pound guard from Austin, Texas. Bailey announced the commitment to Tennessee on his Instagram, but the news was first reported by Gary Parrish of CBS Sports.
At Oregon, Bailey appeared in 73 games in two years and made eight starts as a sophomore this past season for the Ducks. He averaged 7.4 points and 2.0 rebounds per game while dishing out 34 assists compared to 31 turnovers. He did all that while averaging 19.1 minutes per game for the Ducks.
The main appeal of Bailey aside from some ball-handling skills is his three-point shooting ability. Bailey connected on 39.8 percent of his 118 three-point attempts as a sophomore, ranking ninth in the Pac-12 in three-point shooting percentage.
When Bailey played 20 or more minutes for Oregon this season — which he did in 19 of his 37 games — he averaged 10.3 points per contest. Bailey made three or more three-pointers in six games this season. In his eight starts, Bailey averaged 10.3 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.6 assists with only 10 turnovers.
Bailey chose Tennessee likely because of his connection to the Vols’ newest hire on the coaching staff. Bailey took an official visit to Tulsa coming out of high school, and new Vol assistant coach Kim English was on the Hurricanes’ staff at the time.
At McNeil High School in Texas, Bailey was a four-star prospect according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. He was rated as the No. 86 overall player and No. 19 point guard in the 2017 class.
Bailey is the sixth new player to join Tennessee’s roster after the conclusion of the 2018-19 season. The Vols signed five-star guard Josiah Jordan-James, four-star power forward Olivier Robinson-Nkamhoua, three-star forward Drew Pember, and three-star small forward Davonte Gaines in their 2019 signing class. Tennessee also added seven-foot center Uros Plavsic as a transfer from Arizona State. The Vols are currently in the process of working for an appeal for Plavsic to play immediately for the upcoming 2019-20 season.
It remains to be seen if Bailey will be able to play immediately for the Vols this upcoming season, but it’s believed he’ll have to sit out this season due to the standard NCAA transfer rules. He has two years of eligibility left and would use this season as a redshirt year to maintain both years of eligibility if he cannot play.
