The 2019–20 Tennessee Volunteers basketball team represented the University of Tennessee in the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Volunteers were led by fifth-year head coach Rick Barnes. The team played its home games at Thompson–Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee, as a member of the Southeastern Conference. They finished the season 17–14, 9–9 in SEC play to finish in eighth place. They were set to take on Alabama in the second round of the SEC tournament. However, the remainder of the SEC Tournamament was cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Previous season The Vols finished the 2018-19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season 31–6, 15–3 in SEC play to earn a share of the SEC regular season championship. As the No. 2 seed in the SEC tournament, they defeated Mississippi State and Kentucky before losing to Auburn in the championship game. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 2 seed in the South region. There the Volunteers defeated Colgate and Iowa in the Second Round before being upset by Purdue in the Sweet Sixteen.

Offseason

Departures Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Reason for departure 5 F 6'6" 241 Zion, IL Graduated; selected 42nd overall by the Philadelphia 76ers 11 F 6'11" 215 Milton, ON Graduated 12 G 6'1" 177 Murfreesboro, TN Graduated 24 G 6'4" 185 Knoxville, TN Graduated 0 G 6'3" 174 Nashville, TN Declared for the NBA draft; selected 57th overall by the New Orleans Pelicans 2 F 6'7" 236 Charlotte, NC Declared for the NBA draft; selected 22nd overall by the Boston Celtics 15 F 6'8" 236 Kansas City, MO Transferred to Nebraska 32 F 6'9" 272 Rock Hill, SC Transferred to Winthrop

Coaching changes In April 2019, associate head coach Rob Lanier was hired as the new head coach at Georgia State. Barnes hired Kim English as a replacement later that month.

Incoming transfers Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Previous school 13 G 6'4" 190 Junior Austin, TX Transferred from Oregon. Under NCAA transfer rules, Bailey will have to sit out the 2019–20 season. Will have two years of remaining eligibility. 34 C 7'0" 240 Sophomore Ivanjica, Serbia Transferred from Arizona State. Under NCAA transfer rules, Plavšić will have to sit out the 2019–20 season. Will have three years of remaining eligibility.

2019 recruiting class

2020 recruiting class

Preseason

SEC media poll The SEC media poll was released on October 15, 2019.

Media poll 1 Kentucky 2 Florida 3 LSU 4 Auburn 5 Tennessee 6 Alabama 7 Mississippi State 8 Ole Miss 9 Georgia 10 South Carolina 11 Arkansas 12 Texas A&M 13 Missouri 14 Vanderbilt

Preseason All-SEC teams The Volunteers had one player selected to the preseason all-SEC teams.

Second Team

Lamonté Turner

Roster

Depth chart

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=|Exhibition

!colspan=12 style=|Regular season

!colspan=12 style=| SEC Tournament |- style="background:#bbbbbb" | style="text-align:center"|March 12, 20201:00 pm, SECN | style="text-align:center"| (8) | vs. (9) AlabamaSecond round | colspan=5 rowspan=1 style="text-align:center"|Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic | style="text-align:center"|Bridgestone ArenaNashville, TN

Ranking

*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings

References