Matt Johnson
Coming off their third consecutive trip to the Elite Eight, Rick Barnes and the Tennessee Volunteers have hit the college basketball transfer portal hard this summer and another significant addition could be coming.
Joe Tipton of On3.com wrote on Friday that he would give the Volunteers “the edge” in the battle to land VCU guard Terrence Hill Jr. from the portal.
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Hill, standing at 6-foot-3, arrived in Knoxville earlier this week and has stayed for an extended visit. It’s the same thing that happened with the four current Tennessee commits—Miles Rubin, Dai Dai Ames, Jalen Haralson and Tyler Lundblade—who all joined the program at the end of their official visits.
The Kansas Jayhawks and Oklahoma Sooners have also been connected to the VCU transfer. However, Tipton notes that “it doesn’t sound like” Hill will be making the trip to Norman.
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On3 and Rivals.com ranked Hill as the 24th-best player and the eighth-best guard in the college basketball transfer portal this offseason. ESPN‘s Jeff Borzello rated him as the 21st-best player available.
“Hill undoubtedly boosted his stock with his performance against North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament. He led VCU to a 19-point comeback and upset victory with 34 points, five rebounds and five assists. He earned first-team All-Atlantic 10 honors this past season, averaging 15.0 points while shooting 37% from 3.”
ESPN’s Jeff Borzello on guard Terrence Hill Jr
In his final season with VCU, the 20-year-old emerged as one of the biggest breakout stars outside of the Power 4 conferences. He earned First-Team All-Atlantic 10 honors and was named Atlantic 10 Tournament MVP, Atlantic 10 Sixth Man of the Year, and the conference’s Most Improved Player.
In his final 15 games with the program, he averaged 15.7 points, 3.1 assists and 3 rebounds per game while shooting 44.7 percent from the field. Hill also proved instrumental in VCU’s conference title, averaging 17.3 PPG, and in the first-round victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels where he scored 34 points on 23 shots in the 82-78 overtime win.
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With Barnes looking to add more scoring ahead of next season, Hill would certainly help in that regard. He also provides perimeter shooting—2.3 three-pointers made per game on 37 percent—for a team that ranked 296th nationally in three-pointers made per game (6.6) and 208th in three-point percentage (33.4 percent).
