Two players out for No. 12 Tennessee Basketball vs. Gardner-Webb in season opener

Tennessee Basketball will be shorthanded in its season opener against Gardner-Webb Monday night at Food City Center. The Vols will be without fifth-year transfer Darlinstone Dubar and freshman point guard Bishop Boswell.

Dubar is out due to a personal matter and Boswell is in concussion protocol.

No. 12 Tennessee and Gardner-Webb are scheduled for a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start at Food City Center. The game can be streamed on SEC Network+. 

Boswell, Dubar did not practice on Thursday

Bowell played three minutes in the exhibition against Indiana and Dubar played six minutes. Both players did not practice on Thursday, the last open practice the Vols held at Pratt Pavilion. 

Dubar was the first of four NCAA Transfer Portal additions made by the Vols early in the offseason. He committed to Tennessee on April 15 out of Hofstra, where last season he averaged a career-high 17.8 points per game in 33 games, shooting 53.9% from the floor and 39.9% from the 3-point line. He also averaged 6.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 34.6 minutes per game. 

He started his career at Iowa State before transferring to Hofstra after one season. 

Tennessee also added North Florida guard Chaz Lanier, Charlotte stretch forward Igor Milicic and Ohio State center Felix Okpara out of the portal, helping offset the losses of center Jonas Aidoo (Arkansas), power forward Tobe Awaka (Arizona) and redshirt freshmen guards Freddie Dilione V (Penn State) and DJ Jefferson (Longwood). 

The 6-foot-4, 203-pound Boswell, out of Myers Park High Schoo in Charlotte, was Tennessee’s lone prep signing in the 2024 recruiting class. He was ranked as the No. 76 overall prospect in the On3 Industry Ranking and was the No. 12 point guard in the class and the No. 7 prospect in the state of North Carolina. 

Tennessee goes to Louisville on Saturday

After opening with Gardner-Webb on Monday, Tennessee goes to Louisville on Saturday for a Noon Eastern Time start on ACC Network at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. It’s the first game in a two-year home-and-home between the two programs. 

“They’re gonna play really fast,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said of Gardner-Webb last week. “They’re extremely well coached. They got a new coach there, but they’re going to work hard. They’re going to really try to score quick. I think (they were) one of the top teams in the country last year. They can almost play with a 17-second shot clock.

“They get down the floor, they’re going to shoot it quick, they know what they’re doing. They know how they want to play. They’ll spread you out. Really good cutting team. If you turn your head, you get caught looking, they’re gonna take advantage of it.”

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