Tennessee has landed Jalen Washington, and the Vols’ final roster spot may have just answered their loudest offseason question.
Washington is not a seven-footer. He is not Aday Mara, the 7-foot-3 force who helped Michigan win last season’s national championship, either.
That is fine. Tennessee did not need to find a giant for the sake of saying it had one; it needed to add an experienced, SEC-tested 6-foot-10 big who could make the whole frontcourt stronger.
Washington checks that box.
The former Vanderbilt forward averaged 8.9 points and 5.6 rebounds last season, shot 56.3 percent from the floor and totaled 46 blocks. More importantly, he has already lived in the league Tennessee is trying to conquer—where every possession in the paint is a wrestling match and foul trouble can change a game before halftime.
For weeks, some of Big Orange Nation has looked at the roster and seen an unavoidable problem: no true seven-footer, therefore no way Tennessee can match the league’s biggest teams or make a serious March run. It is an understandable concern, especially after Michigan’s title run behind the massive Mara.
But Michigan’s lesson is not that every contender must find a 7-foot-3 center. It is that elite teams need interior answers.
Tennessee now has several. Miles Rubin, another 6-foot-10 center, posted 11.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game at Loyola Chicago last season; those 2.3 blocks sit just below Mara’s 2.6 per game for Michigan.
Rubin is Tennessee’s rangy rim protector. Washington adds a different dimension: a mature, sturdy big who can score efficiently around the basket, battle on the glass and give Barnes a player who will not be overwhelmed when SEC size starts leaning on him.
Then there is the value of not asking any one player to be everything. Christian Fermin provides another 6-foot-10 defensive body, while 6-foot-9, 235-pound Braedan Lue brings strength, mobility and a different kind of physical presence.
That is where Washington’s commitment changes the conversation. Before Sunday, Tennessee’s frontcourt had upside but needed every major piece to stay healthy, productive and out of foul trouble.
Now it has options.
The Vols can go longer with Rubin and Washington. They can go heavier with Washington and Lue. They can play more aggressively knowing the next capable body is not a drastic drop-off.
No, Tennessee did not land a seven-footer. It landed a 6-foot-10 player who fills the role this roster actually needed.
That may not make for the cleanest message-board panic cure. But it makes Tennessee much harder to break in the places long SEC seasons will try to break them. .
– Vol Hoops Staff Writer