Dalton Knecht's goodbye home game won't be the ending for Tennessee basketball | Adams

Win or lose, Tennessee basketball fans will leave Food City Center with one regret Saturday. No matter how convincingly the Vols might beat Kentucky, they’re losing Dalton Knecht after just one season.

One-and-done players of his caliber are the natural order of Kentucky basketball. Not at Tennessee, though.

Maybe, one day Knecht will return to Thompson-Boling Arena for a halftime bow – perhaps even a banner hanging. But this will be his last home game.

Talk about your shooting star. His Tennessee times have been nothing but a flash. He has crammed a career’s worth of highlights into a single season. The suddenness and brevity of it all eventually might magnify those memories.

You will remember a closely contested 3-point shot he launched over a defender’s fingertips. You will remember those hard drives opposing players couldn’t knock off course, followed by the soft finishing touch with his right or left hand.

I will remember those November games when I didn’t know who Knecht was.

I thought I knew. The North Dakota native was a former junior college transfer who made a big enough name for himself at Northern Colorado to gain the attention of bigger-name programs. He was the transfer who could bolster a Tennessee offense that sometimes has needed a 3-point boost in the games that mattered most.

But Knecht has proved to be so much more than that. He's not just some catch-and-shoot player waiting for an unguarded opportunity. Nothing is missing from his offensive repertoire. Not only are his 3-point tries released quickly and accurately. His pull-up, mid-range jump shots come just as naturally. So do those high-flying dunks.  

Former NBA scout Maury Hanks, who now lives in Knoxville, knew Knecht’s game far better than I before Knecht joined the Vols. But not even Hanks knew the Knecht who scored 37 points at North Carolina in late November and 39 against Auburn last week.

“If anybody tells you they thought he would be this type of player (at Tennessee), I would like to have a conversation with him,” said Hanks, who ended his 23-year career as an NBA scout in 2021-22. “He has really, really improved. That’s a testament to the strength coach and the coaching staff at Tennessee.

“His body has improved, so that he can play through contact. Balance is really important, and that comes from strength. A lot of guys can’t play through contact. In the NBA, you have to be able to play through contact.”

Knecht is a consensus first-round NBA Draft pick – “a 10- to 15, maybe higher, according to what I’ve been told,” Hanks said. “He still has to become a better defender out on the floor but he has improved defensively under (coach Rick) Barnes.”

That’s what Knecht had in mind when he transferred to Tennessee. He knew Barnes’ reputation for defense. And defensive improvement was at the top of his priority list as he moved a step closer to the NBA, his career goal even when he was a 5-foot-6 high school freshman guard in Colorado.

Tennessee basketball beat writer Mike Wilson traced Knecht’s rise from there to here – from 5-6 to 6-6 – in a Knox News story published on Jan. 24.  It’s worth rereading before Knecht’s farewell performance in Knoxville.

The good Tennessee news about this goodbye: It’s not the end. In fact, it might be close to the beginning of a postseason run unlike any the Vols have experienced. A school that has never reached the Final Four has championship potential.

That possibility isn’t lost on Tennessee fans. But now is no time for looking past Saturday. Not when Kentucky is here. Not when the hometown crowd has a chance to raise the volume to an Auburn-like level from 10 days earlier.

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You shouldn’t expect an Auburn-level performance from Knecht. The 39 points were just a number. They didn’t tell you he took only 21 shots. Or that he scored 25 points in the last 12 minutes against one of the SEC’s best defenses. Or that the crowd began to cheer every time he got the ball in anticipation of what was to come.

So, don’t expect him to surpass that. But don’t bet against him, either.

His career has been all about getting taller, stronger, and better. Maybe, the best is still to come.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.