Tennessee landed its fourth commitment out of the portal on Friday with North Florida guard Chaz Lanier. The star guard was one of the top prospects in the portal this season and chose Tennessee over Kentucky, BYU, and the NBA Draft.
Lanier ranks as the No. 11 portal prospect according to 247 Sports and gives Tennessee a terrific offensive threat next to point guard Zakai Zeigler next season. The 6-foot-4 guard averaged 19.7 points and 4.8 rebounds per game last season for the Ospreys while taking an elevated scoring role as a fourth-year senior.
Lanier joins a trio of talented transfer portal pickups from Tennessee throughout the offseason. After seeing key departures over the offseason including Dalton Knecht, Jonas Aidoo, and Tobe Awaka, the Vols addressed the size through the portal. Rick Barnes and his staff brought in talented wing Darlinstone Dubar, stretch-four Igor Milicic Jr., and true 6-foot-11 center Felix Okpara.
Tennessee still has two scholarships to work with for the season but it looks as though the Vols’ main rotation for the 2024-2025 season is set with the four portal pickups.
More from RTI: Where Chaz Lanier, Tennessee’s Transfer Players Land in Portal Rankings
The rankings can be tricky when it comes to portal players. While some teams are looking for full roster rebuilds after off-season coaching changes, others are just looking to fill specific holes in their roster to mesh with their returning players. So it’s all relative when it comes down to the rankings considering each team needed different things.
With a commitment from Lanier factored in, Tennessee lands as the No. 13 team in 247’s portal rankings and No. 25 in On3’s portal rankings. There’s not a ton of similarity between the rankings and the ordering of the teams, again highlighting the tough-to-organize nature of the portal rankings.
No SEC team had fewer than three portal additions with Vanderbilt leading the pack at 10 additions. The Commodores brought in three four-star players and six three-star players in their first class outside of the Jerry Stackhouse era. Kentucky and Arkansas, two teams that also went through coaching changes this offseason, are near the top of the list at eight and five additions respectively.
The 16 teams in the SEC have an average of 4.69 portal additions so far with Vanderbilt at the top with 10 and five teams tied at the bottom with three additions.
