KNOXVILLE – Guard Lamonte Turner and forwards Admiral Schofield and Kyle Alexander were accompanied by little expectations when they came to Knoxville in the summer of 2015.
Recruited to be part of the Tennessee basketball program’s rebuild – or in this case, the build – the three arrived on campus either oversized or undersized. Developmental players to say the least, they all had something going against them.
Schofield, for instance, was an inch or so shorter than a traditional small forward, probably a little heavier. For Alexander, it was the opposite: He had the height but had only played two years of high school basketball and was considered a project.
Turner was declared ineligible by the NCAA Clearinghouse due to some reclassification issues and had to redshirt his first season, but the other two were immediately thrown into the fire. Each played in all 32 games, with Schofield starting 22 games as a freshman and Alexander 11, and the Volunteers won 15 games.
They won 16 the next year, but they stayed true to coach Rick Barnes’ teaching.
Last season the Vols broke through with a 26-win season, a share of the Southeastern Conference championship and advancement to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Tuesday night they will try to top that win total when they face Mississippi State (21-9, 9-7) at 9 on the SEC Network.
It’s the final home game for Alexander, Schofield and walk-ons Lucas Campbell and Brad Woodson – each of whom has been with the program as it has progressed from a .500 team to one that spent a month atop the NCAA polls.
But was it ever hard to buy into what Barnes was selling, especially after the first two seasons produced 31 total wins? Apparently not.
“I never questioned the vision,” Schofield said after the Vols’ 96-53 win over Tennessee Tech on Dec. 29. “I questioned what I was doing. I questioned, was that enough? It wasn’t enough. I had to take myself and go to a different level, and when I went to that different level, everybody went to that different level as well.
“I wouldn’t say it started with me, but people see my successes, see what I’m doing and it’s working, and it’s like a domino effect: Everybody starts to do it. Earlier this summer, everyone was in the gym and it was hard for me to get a rim – last year that wasn’t the case. It’s just those little things that separate you come tournament time and down the stretch.”
Schofield is up to 1,435 points during his Vols career, which ranks 17th all-time. Alexander’s 172 blocks rank second all-time behind C.J. Black’s 212. Campbell and Woodson haven’t played much, but Barnes was quick to point out their importance Monday.
“It’s pretty simple. I love these guys,” Barnes said. “When I think about my individual relationship with each one of them, they’re all unique in a different way.
“I’ve watched Kyle really grow from – Coach (Rob) Lanier used to put out a video of him where he was like a newborn giraffe, hardly standing up, wobbling all over the place – where he’s gotten so much better. Admiral, he started overweight but a worker and wanted to go at it with everything he had. You throw in Brad, who when we got here, one of the first people we met, and I offered him the chance to walk on. Brad is going to be great at whatever he decides to do. A couple of weeks later, found out Lucas was on the track team but would rather be on the basketball team, and he came over.
“Lucas’ and Brad’s personalities are totally different, but they both have a unique way where arguably you could pick them as captains of this basketball team in the way that they go about doing it day in and day out and the fact they’re probably respected as much as anybody on the team because they’re just who they are. They’re real – they’re authentic – and they have poured everything they had into this program.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.