KNOXVILLE -- There always was going to be a steep learning curve for Tennessee's freshman forwards.
A basketball season of more downs than ups will help, the Volunteers hope, Willie Carmichael and Tariq Owens take the fast track in their development and tap into their potential.
With fellow freshman Jabari McGhee taking a medical redshirt this season after undergoing foot surgery in December, Owens and Carmichael have been thrown into the fire and have looked like freshmen more often than not this season.
Tennessee forward Tariq Owens (11) fights for a loose ball with Georgia forward Marcus Thornton (2) and guard Charles Mann, right, during an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015, in Athens, Ga.It's been a learning experience for both players, but Tennessee's coaches like the upside for the duo.
"With freshmen it's a process," assistant coach Al Pinkins said before the Vols left for Saturday's game at Ole Miss. "It's a day-to-day process (with) skill development, getting comfortable in game settings. We'll look a year from now down the road, and those guys will be better players.
"It's really tough, because freshman bigs playing against older bigs that have played in the league and know the league, with Tariq and Willie, it's about game experience and being able to play through some mistakes. They're getting to do that, and it'll help them next year as we move forward."
The 6-foot-8, 210-pound Carmichael, a former Southern Mississippi signee, has nearly as many fouls (84) as points (86) this season, and that's after he scored four points and had just one foul -- that's happened just four times in 26 games -- in 19 minutes against the Rebels.
He started 13 games early in the season, but after coming off the bench for a spell he was reinserted into the starting five against Vanderbilt -- whom Tennessee plays in a rematch Thursday in Knoxville -- and scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the Vols' past four games.
Those are all small signs of progress for a player averaging eight fouls per 40 minutes.
"Willie has gotten better the last three weeks -- not necessarily in regard to foul trouble, but the game is slowing down a little bit," Vols coach Donnie Tyndall said Monday.
"He's finished a couple more balls. He still had the lapse (at Ole Miss) where he tried to do too much and spun and ended up turning it over, but it seems to me, probably the last five or six games, the game is slowing down a little bit for him and he's getting a little bit more comfortable."
Owens started back-to-back games earlier this month, but he's not played more than eight minutes in any of the four games since, even after he had a career-high five points and three rebounds in a brief cameo against No. 1 Kentucky.
His seven blocks in SEC play are second on the team, so he's lived up to that strength of his game, but at 6-10 and just more than 190 pounds -- he arrived on campus at 178 -- Owens would have benefited from a redshirt year to live in the weight room and add strength and bulk to his spindly frame.
Owens played in just six of the eight games while McGhee was healthy, and Tennessee has missed the prep school transfer. A year older than both Carmichael and Owens, he was physically more ready to play at this level. In seven games before suffering his injury at North Carolina State, McGhee had 35 points and 30 rebounds.
Tyndall said last week he thought McGhee's absence cost Tennessee a couple of wins.
"He was helping us before he got injured, playing quality minutes, rebounding the ball," Pinkins said. "He was active and really good in our zone defense. We've missed him. We missed him this year.
"It's another body -- five fouls, a guy that was playing well, I thought. He had a good tournament down in Orlando. I thought he was probably one of the better bigs in that tournament. His absence hurt us. It did."
The two healthy freshmen certainly have tested the patience of Tennessee's coaching staff, but they're hopeful these experiences will help in the long run.
"Patience with freshmen, it's probably one of the biggest things coaches have to go through with freshmen, and we're being patient with them," Pinkins said.
"Willie and Tariq, they're doing everything we ask them to do, so they'll get better and be better players."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.