State CB Target ‘great experience’ For Tennessee First Game….

A Class of 2026 cornerback from West Tennessee who received an offer from Tennessee in September attended one of the Vols’ games this season…

MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. — Caden Harris earned a scholarship offer from Tennessee in late September with a strong start to his sophomore season. He didn’t wait long to travel to Knoxville and take his first look at the Vols.

The cornerback from Brownsville, Tennessee’s Haywood High School, class of 2026, said Tennessee impressed him right away on October 14 when he visited for the Vols’ victory over Texas A&M. They are among the teams that, in the early phases of his recruitment, are most striking to him, he claimed, and they have already attracted his attention for a number of reasons.

When pieces in place, Vols become pretty puzzle

You can understand why so many people had such high expectations for Tennessee when its players perform as expected on an individual basis. A solid victory over a top-tier Illinois squad was a positive start.

Tennessee basketball supporters have been demanding more offensive play, more offensive consistency. Coach Rick Barnes of the Vols has also desired it, and in the offseason, he made a few splashes on the portal with the express purpose of addressing that. Though still a work in progress, this season’s numbers appear better on paper. That isn’t a viewpoint. It’s a fact based on statistics.

Last season the Vols were 64th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency. The season before that they were 34th nationally. The season before that, they were 85th nationally.

The Vols defeated a strong, rightfully ranked Illinois squad 86-79 on Saturday at Food City Center, moving them up to 27th place in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency. They are superior. That is true. And for good reason—Tennessee’s offense has gotten better, complementing their consistently excellent defense, which has slipped a little over the last two weeks but is still ranked fifth nationally. Tennessee is ranked No. 9 in Ken Pomeroy’s data, No. 9 in the major polls, and No. 17 in the two major polls.

The Vols are better offensively. They’re not consistently where they want to be and clearly not where some fans want them to be, but they are better on that end of the floor, and at times the talent of senior guard Dalton Knecht makes them veer toward the electric-factory end of the scale.

Make absolutely no mistake about this, though: The pure physicality and the relentless defense remain the calling card of this program, and that’ll be the case as long as Barnes is running the ship. And that’s absolutely fun.

Knecht went on one of his offensive benders early in the second half, and Tennessee desperately needed that at the time.

Two outrageous hustle plays by other Vols changed the game during that stretch, though.

With 15:28 remaining, junior point guard Zakai Zeigler dribbled the ball away from Illinois wing Marcus Domask, dove to the floor to recover it, and then shoveled it forward from the seat of his shorts to senior guard Josiah-Jordan James, who slammed it to give the Vols a 45-44 lead. In true Zeigler fashion, he also knew James was clear to dunk, so he quickly turned to face Domask and informed him that Zeigler owned every ball in that building.

Moments later, junior guard Jahmai Mashack and junior forward Jonas Aidoo bullied their way into the paint to keep a potential offensive rebound loose and in play after a tough-two miss by Knecht. Mashack emerged from the Illinois trees with the ball under the rim, and he took one dribble and looked toward Zeigler but fired the ball directly to Knecht, who stepped into an NBA-range three to cap the 10-0 run that flipped Saturday’s script.