Tennessee basketball may have found its replacement for All-SEC point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie.
The Vols added a fourth player from the transfer portal with a commitment from Terrence Hill Jr. of VCU on April 19. They needed a lead guard to run the offense with Gillespie out of eligibility.
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“Terrence comes from a great family and we are pleased to welcome them all to the Tennessee basketball program,” coach Rick Barnes said in a school release on April 20. “He is a focused, mature and committed person who possesses clear leadership qualities. We are bringing Terrence here to make an immediate, significant impact and we feel great about his ability to do so.
“He is a dynamic player with speed, quickness, a strong basketball IQ and extreme confidence. Terrence can separate off the bounce and can put the ball in the basket from all three levels. He will mesh well with the way we run our offense.”
The 6-foot-3 Hill spent his first two seasons with the Rams. He improved drastically as a sophomore, jumping up from 3.4 points per game as a freshman to 15.0 points last season. Hill led VCU in scoring on 46.6% shooting from the floor and 37% from 3, and he averaged 2.8 assists and 2.7 rebounds.
Despite being the leading scorer, Hill only started in two out of 36 games last season, yet he was third on the team with 25 minutes per contest.
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Hill flashed his elite shooting ability in VCU’s 82-78 upset victory over North Carolina in the first round of the Men’s NCAA Tournament. He scored 34 points, bucketed seven 3-pointers and added five rebounds and five assists.
The Rams lost by 21 points in the next round against Illinois, who made the Final Four, but Hill still finished with 17 points and seven rebounds.
Hill is the latest of Tennessee’s growing list of offseason acquisitions. The Vols started with Belmont graduate transfer Tyler Lundblade and added a pair of Chicago natives in California guard Dai Dai Ames and Loyola center Miles Rubin. They also received commitments from Notre Dame forward Jalen Haralson and four-star high school prospect Chris Washington Jr.
Wynton Jackson covers high school sports for Knox News. Email: wynton.jackson@knoxnews.com
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: What Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes said about guard Terrence Hill Jr.
