Jonathan Bryant looks the part.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will need him to play the part as well in the 2017-18 basketball season.
The 6-foot-3 freshman - the only scholarship guard the new UTC coaching staff brought in - could be asked to contribute immediately in his first year, but unlike the other four true freshmen on the roster, Bryant is physically advanced. He has a 210-pound frame with the athletic ability that allowed him to score nearly 1,000 points in his final two seasons at Oakleaf High School in Orange Park, Fla.
He had a football offer from UT-Martin despite not playing that sport as a senior. As a junior, he had 135 yards on seven catches, with three touchdowns.
"Like any freshman, he's got a long ways to go, but he's got a good attitude," UTC head coach Lamont Paris said. "He works hard, finds himself in the gym a lot. I see him getting a lot of extra shots up. He's a hard worker, and he's allowed us to coach him hard at times, too.
"He wants to be good; he works really hard at it."
One thing that Bryant doesn't lack when playing is emotion.
"That's the one thing you have to bring on the court," Bryant said. "You can't let anybody just push you around. You have to show everybody that you can do what you can do."
The Mocs have junior Dylan Brewster, sophomores Rodney Chatman and Makale Foreman and redshirt freshman David Jean-Baptiste at the guard positions. None of those has a body type quite like Bryant's, and that may help him during the grind of the Southern Conference season.
Bryant was recruited by the previous coaching staff, making a couple of visits to UTC for games during his senior season. The interest cooled off but ramped back up when Paris was hired in April. A talented scorer, he may be able to help in that regard this season, but he has spent most of the preseason working on his defense and confidence, feeling the latter has "shot up" since he arrived on campus.
"I just want to do anything the coaches need me to do and more," Bryant said. "Right away, I feel I can put a couple of points on the board and get a couple of stops on defense.
"I want to prove I belong."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.