KNOXVILLE Sink or swim, Tennessee is going to keep throwing Willie Carmichael into the deep end of the pool.
The freshman forward is going to float sometimes and drown others.
The Volunteers will need Carmichael to continue to start and play heavy minutes this season after its thin frontcourt took a couple of hits, the latest being the right foot injury to Jabari McGhee that will require the freshman to miss a minimum of six to eight weeks after surgery.
Two freshmen in Carmichael and Tariq Owens and two players better suited around the perimeter will have to carry the workload for Tennessee for a big chunk of the season, starting with tonight's game against Mercer.
"I have to stay out of foul trouble more, of course, since Jabari's gone," Carmichael said after he scored eight points in Friday's win against Tennessee Tech. "We have Tariq and Derek left to play the five. I've just got to stay out of foul trouble.
"Some things I just to give away. I had tried to take charges. I couldn't be as aggressive as I usually am."
The 6-foot-8 McGhee, out of Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia, averaged 4.4 points and 3.8 rebounds in 13 minutes per game and suffered his injury in the loss at North Carolina State on Wednesday.
His loss followed the departure of Memphis transfer Dominic Woodson, who left the program after the end of the fall semester and playing in just four games for the Vols.
"The depth of our team has been hurt a little bit with the loss of Jabari," first-year Tennessee coach Donnie Tyndall said. "He's a guy that even though his numbers aren't gaudy, he gives us an energy and a physiclity off the bench that without him we don't have.
"I do think our team still has decent depth, and I do think on our home floor, we hopefully can wear some people down."
Carmichael's best game came in a 10-point, seven-rebound performance in the win against Texas Southern last month, the but the Orlando, Fla., product has committed four fouls in six of Tennessee's nine games to lead the foul-prone Vols with 31 fouls on the season.
The 6-foot-8, 210-pound rookie needs to add weight to his lanky frame, but he won't have time to do that until the offseason, meaning he'll have to develop quickly while battling inside against bigger, more experienced players.
"It gives you experience going against guys like that and guys like Perry Ellis that we saw against Kansas," Carmichael said. "That gives you more experience. I just try to learn from it. They've already been there and they're veterans at the game."
It's a positive sign, though, that three of Tennessee's five wins came when Carmichael played well.
He scored the Vols' first basket on Friday night after getting the ball in the post, and Tennessee will need him to develop in that area to add that dimension to an offense that has shown it can get bogged down for stretches in games.
"We get a bucket on the first possession and very seldom scored around the goal the rest of the night from our posts," Tyndall said. "We drove it a little bit, but it's hard when you don't have a go-to guy to throw that ball down there in hopes he draws a foul or gets an easy bucket or collapses the defense.
"Don't get me wrong, Willie and Tariq are working extremely hard, but they're limited right now offensively, and the two other posts we have, Armani and Derek, are really more pick-and-pop, face-up post players. They're playing at 19, 20 feet.
"It's going to be a grind like that some nights, and if we don't shoot the ball well from the perimeter, it's going to be challenging for us offensively."