He’s in the mix.
Tennessee has seen a recent uptick in NBA Draft action, thanks to some elite recruiting and transfer portal work from Rick Barnes. One thing Tennessee fans aren’t used to seeing though is a Volunteer being in the mix to go No. 1 overall. That could change this year.
At ESPN, Jeremy Woo and Jonathan Givony laid our four prospects who could be that No. 1 pick next summer. Tennessee’s Nate Ament was one of them.
A late bloomer, Ament has grown significantly in the past year, filling out his frame at 6-11.
He’s a tremendous shotmaker; he has improved his passing and defensive versatility; and his ability to get a shot off almost at will gives him perhaps the highest upside of any prospect in this class. He’ll be a focal point at Tennessee, allowing NBA teams to evaluate whether he can emerge as a consistently efficient, winning player in a challenging SEC. (Jonathan Givony, ESPN)
Tennessee’s highest ever draft pick was center Tom Boerwinkle way back in 1968, where he went 4th overall. Bernard King went 7th in 1977, Dale Houston went 9th in 1983 and Alan Houston came off the board 11th in 1993. In more of the modern era, Tennessee has seen Tobias Harris go 19th in 2011 and Dalton Knecht go 17th in 2024.
Needless to say, it’s been a while since a Volunteer impacted the top few picks. In the mock draft from ESPN that accompanied the article, Ament went fourth overall to the Hornets.
Ament checks in at 6-10, operating with true wing skills. He was the fourth ranked player in the class of 2025, according to 247Sports. He’s going to do a little bit of everything for Barnes this season and he’s already drawn some praise from those around the program about his work ethic this summer.
With so much production on the way out, you can expect Tennessee to lean on the emerging elite talent of Ament on the offensive end. It will be interesting to see how quickly he adapts to the college game, especially with Tennessee’s notoriously tough non-conference schedules.
ESPN listed Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, BYU forward A.J. Dybansta and Duke forward Cam Boozer as potential No. 1 picks, along with Ament.