KNOXVILLE -- Some five months before his first college basketball game, Shembari Phillips is far from a finished product as a basketball player.
One attribute the Tennessee freshman guard isn't lacking is confidence.
The same attribute Phillips showed in his decision to stick with the Volunteers amid their coaching transition from Donnie Tyndall to Rick Barnes was on display on Monday night, when he scored 26 points to lead his team to a victory in the opening game of the annual Pilot Rocky Top League.
When the 6-foot-4, 185-pound Phillips signed with Tennessee out of Atlanta's Wheeler High School in November, he expected he'd play for Tyndall, Tennessee's coach at the time.
Even after Tyndall's firing in March and the subsequent hire of Barnes, Phillips hardly wavered in sticking with the Vols, as both he and Illinois forward Admiral Schofield stuck with a program that lost all four of its signees last year in the transition from Cuonzo Martin to Tyndall.
"I got to know the coaches a little bit," Phillips said Monday night. "They're all great guys. I did my homework on Barnes. He's a great coach, has a lot of years on him. I feel like he can really take me to the next level and continue to make me grow.
"My most important role model is my mother. I talked to her, and we sat down and talked about it. Ultimately, Coach Barnes is a great coach, and I feel like he can take all of us to great places."
Phillips flashed some of his skills in his summer league debut on Monday night while playing on a team featuring former Vol Wayne Chism and fellow freshman Kyle Alexander, who scored 25 points and probably grabbed near that many rebounds.
The former three-star recruit's strength at this point may be his slashing ability, and he demonstrated nice quickness and the ability to distribute the ball when he drove toward the rim.
That may help him if the Vols are forced to play him at point guard this upcoming season.
Phillips was classified by the recruiting services as a two-guard, but he played some point for his AAU team this spring.
"(Barnes) is a great coach, and whatever he puts me at, that's going to be the best for the team," Phillips said.
Based on his scholarship offer list, which included Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M out of the SEC in addition to Wichita State and Cincinnati among others, Phillips could have had some options had he elected to ask out of his letter of intent to play at Tennessee.
Barnes and his assistant coaches made the decision an easy one for Phillips, who averaged 18 points, six rebounds and four assists his junior season at Tucker High School.
"All the coaches are great guys," he said. "They were very welcoming. They made it a point to get to know each other as far as the new team, and I commend them for that."
At Wheeler, Phillips played alongside Jaylen Brown, the five-star small forward who signed last month to play for Martin at California, and helped the Wildcats win Georgia's Class AAAAAA state championship and reach the Dick's Sporting Goods Nationals, a tournament featuring the nation's eight best high school teams.
That success is probably part of the reason Phillips comes to Tennessee with some confidence in his ability.
"I need to get better in everything," he said. "I want to be the best player that I can be. I feel like I'm not done growing, and I feel like the coaching staff here will get me to the point that I want to get to.
"I love the fact that we're a little under the radar," he added. "It gives us the chance to go out there with the mentality that we have nothing to lose. I feel like we'll do some good things this year."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.