Josiah-Jordan James is coming back for a 5th and final year at Tennessee, he announced via Twitter Wednesday afternoon.

This comes as a bit of a shock, but a welcome one for Tennessee fans. The Vols have been right at the scholarship limit of 13 for some time now following the transfer addition of Dalton Knecht from Northern Colorado earlier this offseason.

James’ return means 1 of 3 things for Tennessee: 1.) He, a fringe NBA prospect, is returning as a walk-on, 2.) another player will move to “walk-on status” (if you will) or 3.) a scholarship player will have to exit the program prior to the start of next season. All signs point to option No. 1 being the case in this instance, though that is not confirmed as of May 31.

That’s a question that will be answered in time. For now, check out James’ announcement below:

Tennessee is going to be dangerous next season. Potentially preseason top-5/10 dangerous.

The Vols are set to return 2 strong 5th-year veterans in James and All-SEC guard Santiago Vescovi for 2023-24. Zakai Zeigler, Jahmai Mashack, Jonas Aidoo and Tobe Awaka will be back for the Vols, too.

Plenty of new faces will compete for minutes as well, including Knecht, Harvard transfer Chris Ledlum and USC Upstate transfer Jordan Gainey (who could be a potential walk-on candidate.) That’s not even mentioning a top 20 incoming freshman class featuring a pair of 4-stars and previously reclassified Class of 2022 guard Freddie Dilione to potentially back up Zeigler at PG.

All that to say: Tennessee basketball will be absolutely loaded next season. Let’s see what Rick Barnes and Co. can do with all that firepower.