BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team took center stage at the SEC Tipoff ’26 event in Birmingham Wednesday, with head coach Rick Barnes, senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, senior forward Felix Okpara and junior forward Cade Phillips representing the Volunteers.
The group arrived at the Grand Bohemian Hotel Mountain Brook and visited with media members from around the country to preview the upcoming 2025-26 season. Barnes took to the podium to discuss his revamped roster.
“I think the versatility is that [he] can swing out and play some perimeter too because of his ability to guard,” Barnes said of Phillips, when asked about his team’s front court. “Getting JP [Estrella] back [is important], and again, we are still working him back to full speed. I mean, we needed that in the last couple years, obviously, and Felix has improved. I just think his confidence in his leadership – he’s taking that to a different level.
“Then there’s Jaylen Carey, he hurt us more than any post player we played against last year, but he’s learning to adjust to what we’re doing, which is different for him. We’re excited about that,” Barnes added. “Probably the biggest surprise is DeWayne Brown as a freshman coming in. 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 for him to grab a hold of it. I think with J.P. being out and him having to go up every day pretty much against Felix has helped him grow and there’s no doubt he will be a big part of our rotation of those five guys.”
Barnes also spoke glowingly about freshman forward Nate Ament, a consensus top-four recruit, during his time at the podium. The 11th-year head coach was asked to compare Ament to some of his previous five-star signees.
“What he has similar with most all those guys, or all those guys, would be his humility,” Barnes noted. “He’s come in with the attitude that he’s got to get better. He knows he needs to blend in with the guys on the team, and they certainly have a great respect for him because they see how diligent he goes about his job every day.”
“Nate is learning to play a different position than he’s ever really played. I mean, we’ve kept him exclusively on the outside right now, and because of our front-line depth, he’s learning to do things at a level that he’s never had to which is not unique to freshman coming in … We are more than pleased with him because of his humility and how hard he works.”
