KNOXVILLE - With Tennessee starting three or more freshmen for most of this basketball season, there always was going to be a learning curve for the young Volunteers.
Even this deep into the season, when the freshmen playing the most can be considered sophomores, there still are lessons for those young players to learn as they continue to develop.
With point guard Jordan Bone, wing Jordan Bowden and forward Grant Williams doing most of the heavy lifting, freshmen are accounting for almost 48 percent of Tennessee's scoring, more than 58 percent of the team's assists and nearly 47 percent of the Vols' minutes this season heading into tonight's game against Vanderbilt.
"The biggest thing that they're learning is how hard it is to win," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "I think sometimes I tell them they have to understand winning is precious, and to do that it takes great effort, because everybody wants to win. You have to have great respect night in and night out and know that other teams are capable.
"Like what (Georgia's) J.J. Frazier did (against Tennessee), there's teams that can do that. Vanderbilt's got a number of guys that can get going and hit a bunch of shots. It's them having the mental toughness to stay engaged and stay on edge, and that's probably where we haven't, like we weren't on edge at Kentucky.
"We had some guys thinking about anything and everything other than what they should have thought about. We've gotten better with that, but we're still not where we have to be to be the kind of team we want to be night in and night out."
The unknowns on the roster - the Vols added six freshmen and a graduate transfer in Lew Evans and also added redshirt freshman Lamonte Turner into the mix - were the main reason they were picked 13th in the Southeastern Conference preseason poll.
How newcomers Williams, Bone and Bowden have played now are the primary reasons the Vols are fighting for the NCAA tournament and why the program is looking at a bright future next season and beyond, when John Fulkerson returns from injury and the redshirting Jalen Johnson is added into the mix.
"You can tell by the way they come in and they work that they really do care," sophomore forward Admiral Schofield said. "That's the first step, someone who's committed and cares about the game. They've been going through the same things that I went through, being able to receive the message and understand what's being said instead of how it's being said.
"Coach Barnes can be very intense and that intensity's not going to change. I think the biggest thing for us as the older guys is to get them understand that this is how you go about it. You've got to really listen to what he's saying and work on the things he's saying, because he really can stretch your ability.
"The young guys, they've really taken heed more than we did last year - me, Shembari (Phillips) and Kyle (Alexander) - and they've taken a good listening ear and applied to what Coach has been saying, and they've been playing very well this season."
Freshmen lead Tennessee in rebounding and blocks (Williams), assists (Bone) and steals (Bowden), but relying so much on inexperienced players can lead to frustrating and head-scratching moments and inconsistency.
According to Barnes, his team's lack of maturity has hurt efforts to close games, and the coach pointed to instances in the win against Missouri in which Bone carelessly turned the ball over and Williams fouled needlessly after missing a shot.
"You don't make those plays at the end of the game. You don't," he added. "After both of those guys did that, they didn't play anymore. It's playing the game. It's not just out there trying to do whatever. You're still always trying to work the game, and that's what we're still trying to teach these guys, that every possession is important because this is a game of habit.
"Wanting guys to do the right thing all the time, that's what we're trying to get to go, because to be the program that we want to be, we've got to get there."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.