Tennessee assistant coach Lucas Campbell sat court side at Pratt Pavilion on a summer day watching North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier attempt the Turner shooting drill. Named after former Tennessee guard Lamonte Turner, players shoot at each of the five spots around the perimeter until they miss consecutive shots. Turner is the drill’s namesake because he owned the record.
After over an hour of shooting, Lanier has shattered Turner’s record with 241 made triples.
“Chaz beat Lamonte’s record and still had like three spots to go,” Campbell said. “We had to eventually cut him off and be like, ‘you’re done for today. You’re making too many.’”
Lanier’s summer shooting surge was an early sign of one of the best shooting seasons in Tennessee history and another win in the transfer portal for Rick Barnes and his staff. But it hasn’t come without its challenges.
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Two days after Lanier made eight three-pointers to score a game-high 30 points in Tennessee’s win at Texas A&M, he stands beneath the Chris Lofton banner at Thompson-Boling Arena going through a shooting workout with urgency.
Lofton is the only player in Tennessee history that’s made more three-pointers in a single-season than Lanier. With a strong NCAA Tournament, Lanier could potentially break Lofton’s record.
Lanier’s intense in-season workout is similar to the offseason workouts that first showed what he could achieve in his lone season at Tennessee.
“Start off super close at the basket, one hand,” Lanier told RTI. “Just like what your mom or dad teach you in the backyard. One hand shooting. I try and make three swishes right at the front of the rim in a row. Take a few steps back, same thing, a few more steps back until I get to like the free throw line, three swishes in a row.”
Lanier makes 10 shots at five spots in the midrange and makes 10 more shots at five spots around the arc. After finishing catch-and-shoot work, Lanier practices dribble moves into his three-point shot.
All in all, Lanier is making 150 game shots in addition to his warmups. His ability to consistently finish the workout in 30 minutes was an early sign of how special a shooter he is.
“As a drill shooter, Dalton (Knecht) might get mad at me, but he’s a better drill shooter than DK,” Campbell said. “You put him in just a catch and shoot drill and he really is about an 80-90% shooter.”
Lanier shattered the Turner shooting record and also completed the incredibly difficult KD drill which requires shooters to make nine of 10 shots at seven spots around the arc. A player that completes the drill makes at least 63 of 70 shots. The Nashville native made more.
“There were definitely some spots where I made 10 out of 10, but not all of them,” Lanier said.
Lanier was one of the best shooters in the transfer portal when he committed to Tennessee in late May over Kentucky and BYU. During the 2024 season at North Florida, Lanier made over 100 three-pointers at an insane 44% clip.
But the extent of Lanier’s summer shooting success turned heads inside Tennessee’s program.
“He’s unbelievable,” Campbell remembers thinking while watching Lanier. “The first thing you think is how can we get it to translate to games. He clearly can shoot it if his feet are set. And that’s what coach (Barnes) thinks. This kid can shoot it. I’m seeing the numbers and talking to staff. How can we get him opportunities to get to his shot. That’s what coach is good about. He’s really going to try and run stuff to guys to get them whatever shot.”
The regular season rolled around and Lanier hit the ground running. He threw in seven three-pointers in the first half of Tennessee’s win over Baylor on his way to averaging 22.5 points in the Vols’ six non-conference wins over power five competition.
But the sailing wouldn’t remain so smooth for Lanier when the calendar turned to 2025 and conference play got underway.
Tennessee opened SEC play by torching Arkansas in Knoxville. Lanier looked unstoppable, pouring in 29 points on five made three-pointers. But the challenges came soon after.
Florida held Lanier to 10 points in a Gators rout in Gainesville and Lanier began to slump. It was the first game in a seven-game stretch where Lanier averaged just 12.8 points and scored 15-plus points only twice.
“In non conference you play some buy games and then your high major games, teams are still adjusting to who you are because it’s 10 games in,” Campbell said. “People knew Chaz was a good shooter but the takeout defense and the down screening him and not letting him catch it (wasn’t happening yet).”
In SEC play, opponents’ scouting reports of Tennessee started with slowing down the 6-foot-4 flamethrower. Lanier was the lead man last season at North Florida so it wasn’t a completely foreign process. But the level of athlete and caliber of player that was now trying to slow Lanier down was completely different.
“Last year I was the guy too,” Lanier said. “But I’d say the preparation for the other team wasn’t as, I don’t know, wasn’t as strong for me. Like now you’re going to have a super big defender on you. They’re probably going to deny you the whole game. For me, just working through that physicality. But I mean, it was kind of like that last year, but it was just the defenders and stuff weren’t as big and weren’t as strong.”
“Everybody plays hard in all leagues,” Campbell said. “You always have a team that just plays super hard in every league but now you’re doing it with Mississippi State and Texas A&M and some crazy athletes.”
The increased competition was a significant change for Lanier and it played directly into his role. At North Florida, Lanier was a ball dominant player who could create his own shot. At Tennessee, Zakai Zeigler handled the basketball and the elite athletes made it more challenging for Lanier to create his own shot off the dribble.
“I play with Zakai Zeigler, so I don’t need the ball in my hands a lot,” Lanier said. “I mean, he makes the game so much easier. But yeah, I feel like my game has changed a little bit.”
What Lanier had to learn was how to get himself open without the basketball. Tennessee’s offense utilizes an abundance of pindown screens and floppy actions that sprung Lanier free in non-conference play. But with SEC teams keying on and throwing different defenses at Lanier, it became much harder for the sharpshooter to spring open.
“Coach talked to him like, you’re going to have to work,” Campbell said. “You’re going to have to work harder than you have in your whole career to get open. That’s just what it is.”
Working harder was part of it for Lanier, but it was also thinking through the game and how defenses were guarding him.
“The talent and skill level is pretty much the same,” Lanier said. “So it’s who’s smarter. Who’s going to win the foot race to a certain spot. So just thinking about that when I’m out there playing, instead of just running around just looking for shots, I have to be more instrumental in trying to get to my spots quicker and getting my hips flipped to get the ball.”
That’s where watching film became a big part of Lanier’s preparation. Campbell showed him how Santiago Vescovi created open shots for himself by screening others. Rick Barnes showed him how Steph Curry changes his speeds to keep defenders off balance.
“The way he changes his paces is amazing, just walking and setting guys up,” Lanier said of Curry. “Because they never know what he is going to do. And a lot of times he just gets easy baskets by sprinting to a spot. … He’s starting and stopping a lot.”
Lanier’s growth is evident. Since the seven game slump, Lanier is averaging 17.4 points per game and has scored 20-plus points five times.
As Tennessee enters the NCAA Tournament, Lanier is sixth in the country with 110 made three-pointers and is just eight triples away from tying Lofton’s single-season record. Facing drastically better competition than he did a season ago, Lanier has proved to be one of the best shooters in Tennessee history in just one season.
