When Tennessee was bounced by Houston in the Elite Eight of the NCAA basketball tournament earlier this year, the Volunteers had three players who logged more than 32 minutes and two more who played at least 28.
Monday night was a very different look.
In their 76-61 opening win over Mercer inside the Food City Center, the No. 18 Vols didn’t have any players with 30 minutes — freshman forward Nate Ament was in for 29:11 and senior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie for 28:06 — as 11th-year coach Rick Barnes watched 11 players get at least 12 minutes of playing time.
“We’re still searching through as coaches to see what we can find out,” Barnes said during a news conference after the opener. “We need to find out what we’re going to get from these guys.”
Ament is a five-star talent who tallied 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds against the Bears, but getting significant playing time was never going to be an issue for the 6-foot-10, 207-pounder from Manassas, Virginia. The bigger question concerned the rest of Tennessee’s five-member freshman class, where it appears that DeWayne Brown II and Troy Henderson are making an early breakthrough.
Brown is a 6-8, 251-pound forward from the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, while Henderson is a 6-1, 186-pound guard from Richmond.
“They’re going to be in there,” Barnes said. “They’re going to be in there because they’ve earned it, and the more they play, the better they’re going to get. We’ve got a chance to have the depth that we want, but if you just think you’re going to play, that’s not going to happen.
“Some of our older guys have to be better than they were tonight.”
Brown did a good job of packing the stat sheet in his 15:21 on the floor, scoring six points on 3-of-3 shooting, pulling down five rebounds and dishing out two assists.
“DeWayne came in offensively and did a great job, and he also did a great job defensively and in rebounding, too,” Tennessee redshirt sophomore forward J.P. Estrella said. “He shows up every day in practice, so I’m not surprised at game time when he does the exact same thing.”
Henderson also scored six points and tallied two assists during his 12:01 of playing time, with his points coming via 2-of-3 shooting from 3-point range. Ament and Henderson grew up 95 miles from each other and played AAU ball together.
“He lights up the locker room and makes all of us laugh, and he is also very consistent in trying to get better,” Ament said. “He knows his role as someone who can come in and back up Ja’Kobi and be a spark off the bench. Him just kind of learning to master that makes us a better team, and I think he understands that.”
The Vols next play Saturday afternoon at 3 against visiting Northern Kentucky in what will be another opportunity to see how minutes will be divided among this new-look roster.
“We’re super deep,” Estrella said. “We’ve got so much talent that comes off the bench. There is no reason we should ever play slow and sloppy.
“We should be going full pace the whole time, which I think benefits us so much.”
Odds and ends
Tennessee improved to 36-3 in Food City Center openers and has won 33 of its last 34, with the lone loss coming to UTC, 82-69, on Nov. 11, 2016. … Barnes won his 837th career contest, which is tops among active Division I coaches and ninth all-time. … Barnes improved to 27-1 against Southern Conference opposition with the Vols, with that loss to the Mocs being the lone defeat. … Tennessee’s 54 rebounds Monday were more than the Vols had in any game last season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.