Chaz Lanier explains why he chose Tennessee

From the moment Chaz Lanier hit the transfer portal — and perhaps maybe even a little before that — it was easy to connect the dots back to Tennessee. The Nashville native was coming off of by far his best season in college, going from a role player to a legitimate star at North Florida.

The improvement was so dramatic that the NBA took notice. Lanier went through the NBA Draft process as he entered the transfer portal, which allowed him to get feedback from organizations. Ultimately he returned to college, and now he’ll see a big uptick in competition level in SEC play.

Dalton Knecht did the same thing last year and turned himself into a first round draft pick. Both Tennessee and Lanier are…