Tennessee will get its top men’s basketball recruit in the class of 2023 early. Freddie Dilione, a four-star combo guard out of Word Of God Christian Academy (Raleigh, N.C.), is in the process of enrolling early for the Volunteers.
247Sports first reported the news and Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes confirmed.
Dilione is ranked the No. 27 player in the class on the 247Sports Composite and is the top-ranked four-star player, meaning he’s on the verge of a fifth star. He is the eighth-ranked combo guard. He had offers from 23 schools.
Though Dilione will join Tennessee early, he won’t step on the court for game action this season. He plans to redshirt his first season with the team and prepare for the 2023-24 season.
Barnes said to 247Sports:
“I don’t know how long it will really take for him to get into practice with us, but we’ll get him in school and get him going that way. (Strength coach) Garrett (Medenwald) will start his deal with him on helping him with his body and nutrition and all of that will come together. But he’ll be in practice. How much he does, he’ll probably start out really helping our scout team as he continues to learn our system here.”
MaxPreps has stats from nine games listed from Dilione’s junior year. These numbers show averages of 21.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. With Overtime Elite, he posted averages of 23.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.4 steals per game, according to Overtime.