{"id":135441,"date":"2025-04-20T19:56:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T23:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=135441"},"modified":"2025-04-20T19:56:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T23:56:56","slug":"nate-ament-tennessee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/20\/nate-ament-tennessee\/","title":{"rendered":"Top-5 2025 High School Recruit Commits to Tennessee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a long process, originally planning to announce his decision at the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/28\/2025-naismith-poy-nate-ament-to-announce-college-decision-mcdonalds-all-american-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"> McDonald&#8217;s All-American game<\/a> earlier this month, a top high school recruit finally made his college decision. Elite high school recruit <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/Player\/nate-ament-46137363\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nate Ament<\/a> announced his decision to commit to Tennessee next season. In a stacked SEC, a potential high draft pick could be a crucial addition to the Volunteers. How does Ament fit into their roster, and what is their ceiling for next year?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEWS: 5\u2b50\ufe0f Nate Ament, On3\u2019s No. 3 overall recruit in the country, has committed to Tennessee. <\/p>\n<p>The 6-9 small forward chooses the Vols over Arkansas, Louisville, Kentucky, and Duke. <\/p>\n<p>Massive news for Rick Barnes. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UwnmjWqLy3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/UwnmjWqLy3<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SXswpEnfMO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/SXswpEnfMO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TiptonEdits\/status\/1914092106185945350?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Top-5 2025 High School Recruit Nate Ament Commits to Tennessee<\/h2>\n<h3>How Does Nate Ament Fit into Tennessee&#8217;s Roster?<\/h3>\n<p>Ament is<a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/season\/2025-basketball\/recruitrankings\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> ranked fourth<\/a> in the high school recruit rankings for 2025. The 6-foot-9 power forward provides much-needed size to their recruiting class. Tennessee has lost several key players like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/chaz-lanier-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chaz Lanier<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/zakai-zeigler-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zakai Zeigler<\/a>. While they have<a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/college\/tennessee\/season\/2025-basketball\/commits\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> two centers in the class<\/a>, Ament provides elite talent to the frontcourt that was previously lacking. Neither center is a true game-changer. Ament can fit alongside key transfer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/jakobi-gillespie-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ja&#8217;Kobi Gillespie<\/a> in the starting lineup for Rick Barnes.<\/p>\n<p>Ament himself is everything that the modern game loves. He can handle the ball well for his size, creating mismatches with even SEC centers. He shoots well, netting over 40% of his three-point attempts this season. Ament will spread Tennessee&#8217;s offense, which occasionally becomes an issue in big games. He won&#8217;t be asked to be a primary ball-handler with Gillespie, but he can do anything Barnes needs him to. Tennessee could ask for anything more in a recruit.<\/p>\n<h3>Tennessee&#8217;s Ceiling<\/h3>\n<p>Rick Barnes is an elite coach with an incredible record. However, he has only ever made one Final Four during his coaching career. Tennessee had a golden opportunity to make that Final Four appearance, sliding past <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/25\/tennessee-kentucky-sweet-16-matchup\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">rival Kentucky<\/a> before laying an egg in the Elite Eight against Houston. In a stacked SEC, it won&#8217;t be easy. However, Barnes needs that Final Four appearance again. Just like Kelvin Sampson doesn&#8217;t need a title to be an elite coach, neither does Barnes. However, more NCAA Tournament success would surely end all debate.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee has replaced most of its talent, but can the Vols replicate this success? Gillespie will be a star for the Volunteers, while Ament hopes to bring Tennessee a national championship run. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/15\/auburn-keshawn-murphy\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Auburn has added key pieces<\/a>, Kentucky has reloaded incredibly well, and Florida just won a national championship and<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/16\/florida-clayton-jr-replacement-xavian-lee\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"> added an elite point guard.<\/a> This conference is a tough road. That doesn&#8217;t make the NCAA Tournament any harder, but it would likely hurt their seed if they can&#8217;t live up to the bill.<\/p>\n<p>This roster has a lower ceiling than this past year. Tennessee was a legitimate national championship threat. After losing Lanier and Zeigler, their replacements haven&#8217;t been as proven or dynamic. This will be an NCAA Tournament team, likely earning a relatively high seed. However, they would need each player to live up to or go beyond their expectations. Nate Ament provides much-needed star power to Tennessee&#8217;s roster next season, but is one star enough? It would take a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/carmelo-anthony-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carmelo Anthony<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/anthony-davis-5.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a> run in the NCAA Tournament. If <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/cooper-flagg-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cooper Flagg<\/a> couldn&#8217;t do it with arguably the best team in the 21st century, \u00a0it&#8217;s hard to believe Ament will find that success either.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: \u00a9 Pamela Smith-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a long process, originally planning to announce his decision at the McDonald&#8217;s All-American game earlier this month, a top high school recruit finally made his college decision. Elite high school recruit Nate Ament announced his decision to commit to Tennessee next season. In a stacked SEC, a potential high draft pick could be a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5370,"featured_media":135451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,2,3],"tags":[1436,1763],"class_list":["post-135441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-featured","category-news","tag-sec-basketball","tag-tennessee-volunteers"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135441"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135452,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135441\/revisions\/135452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}