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While many feel that Tennessee underachieved last year, realistically they were a young team relying on some unproven talent, who faired pretty well given the big shoes they were filling. Even though it took a little time for the Volunteers to find their way, coach Bruce Pearl's team eventually found some consistency, still won 21 games, and made the NCAA Tournament. Now, with every key player returning, high expectations are warranted for the 2009-2010 Vols.

Bobby Maze did an admirable job running the Tennessee point last year with an impressive assist to turnover ratio of two-to-one, while averaging a little over 8 points per game, but his minutes will likely go down with the addition of junior college transfer Melvin Goins. Josh Tabb shared some time at the point, but will now be able to play off the ball and provide the Vols with some solid defense off the bench. Scotty Hopson and J.P. Prince are likely to start on the wings. Hopson carried huge expectations into his freshman season and answered them fairly well by averaging just over 9 points a game; if his outside shot becomes more consistent, he will surely transform into the dominant scorer that everybody expected since day one. Prince is not much of a shooter, but he does everything else – averaging 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and almost 2 steals last year.

Wayne Chism will be the big man spending most of his time under the basket for Tennessee, although he does have the ability to stretch out the defense with his three-point shooting ability. Even though Chism spends quite a bit of time on the perimeter, he is an excellent rebounder and fairly decent shot blocker. Joining Chism down low will be underappreciated rebounder Brian Williams, who pulled down almost 6 rebounds per game despite only averaging 16 minutes. Add the emerging sophomore Emmanuel Negedu and freshman Kenny Hall to the rotation and Tennessee has more than enough talent to go ten deep without much of a drop off.