COLUMBIA, MO. • As one of college basketball’s rare four-year starters, Missouri senior forward and endangered species Kevin Puryear respects what’s happening at Tennessee. After a 26-win season that included a share of the Southeastern Conference regular-season championship, the Volunteers returned eight of the top nine players from last year’s rotation. In a sport that’s now defined by constant roster turnover, Tennessee has become one of the game’s exceptions — and, not by coincidence, one of its best.
“Nowadays we’re in the one-and-done era, the five-star era,” Puryear said Monday. “Tennessee, they’ve got a bunch of two-star, three-star guys and they’ve made them into one of the better teams in the country.