Tennessee will open the 2026-27 season with a preseason spot in the top tier of the SEC, but not at the very top.
The Vols were picked to finish fourth in the league’s preseason media poll, behind Florida, Texas and Arkansas. Alabama rounded out the top five, with Vanderbilt sixth and Kentucky seventh. Florida also swept the individual headliners, as Thomas Haugh was named SEC Player of the Year and the Gators placed three players across the first and second teams.
Fourth doesn’t seem bad for a roster of 13 newcomers. Barnes said last week that nobody has separated themselves yet. That makes the preseason poll more of a guess than usual for this group, and it puts more weight on how fast the Vols can settle on a rotation before conference play opens Jan. 2.
Juke Harris carries the preseason hype
Harris was Tennessee’s only selection on any of the three preseason All-SEC teams, landing on the first team alongside Haugh, Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu, Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard and Vanderbilt’s Tyler Tanner.
The recognition sets a high bar, and Barnes was honest about the adjustment the Wake Forest transfer is still making. He compared Harris’ start to some of the best players to come through his program.
“Juke is no different than Nate Ament, Chaz Lanier, Dalton Knecht,” Barnes said. “I mean, it’s a whole new system for him, but like those guys, he’s pretty much where those guys were. And like those guys, he’ll just keep getting better and better as the season goes on.”
Lanier and Knecht both turned into go-to scorers once they got comfortable in Barnes’ system, and if Harris follows that path, a first-team preseason selection could be cemented in March. Barnes also made clear the process has not been easy. He said he and Harris had a long talk about how hard the transition has been, and he went back to a line he gave Harris before he ever arrived.
“Everything you want is on the other side of hard,” Barnes said. “It’s going to be hard. If you’re going to do everything that you’d like to accomplish, not just individually, but as a team, it’s going to be hard.”
Where the rest of the SEC landed
Florida was the clear favorite after returning a loaded frontcourt, with Haugh, Chinyelu and Alex Condon all earning preseason honors. Texas, picked second, had Matas Vokietaitis on the second team and David Punch on the third team. Arkansas, picked third, placed Jordan Smith Jr. on the second team and Billy Richmond III on the third team.
Tennessee’s path to finishing higher than fourth likely runs through those three. If Harris plays like a first-team guard and the defense returns to the level Barnes expects, the Vols have the pieces to crash that group.
Below is the complete preseason order with awards.
Predicted Order of Finish
- Florida
- Texas
- Arkansas
- Tennessee
- Alabama
- Vanderbilt
- Kentucky
- Missouri
- Texas A&M
- Auburn
- Georgia
- Oklahoma
- Ole Miss
- LSU
- Mississippi State
- South Carolina
SEC Player of the Year
Thomas Haugh, Florida
First Team All-SEC
- Rueben Chinyelu, Florida
- Juke Harris, Tennessee
- Thomas Haugh, Florida
- Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State
- Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
Second Team All-SEC
- Amari Allen, Alabama
- Alex Condon, Florida
- Milan Momcilovic, Kentucky
- Jordan Smith Jr., Arkansas
- Matas Vokietaitis, Texas
Third Team All-SEC
- PJ Haggerty, Texas A&M
- Malachi Moreno, Kentucky
- Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn
- David Punch, Texas
- Billy Richmond III, Arkansas
