KNOXVILLE – Shembari Phillips had to change his thought process to increase his role on Tennessee’s basketball team.
The result? The freshman is helping the Volunteers in the present and providing hope about the kind of player he could be in the future.
In his fourth start in a row, Phillips scored 13 points – his third double-figure scoring performance in the past five games – with six rebounds and four assists in Tennessee’s 81-65 home win against LSU on Saturday, and he attributed his recent consistency to a new mindset.
“When I first got in, I felt like somebody owed me something, and I had to take a step back and just think to myself that I’m not as good as I think I am,” he said. “Ever since a couple weeks back, I started getting in the gym a lot more and started attacking the game differently. I let the game start on defense and it’s been working out great for me.
“I felt like every day in practice I really wasn’t emptying it out. I made it a point every day in practice to go hard. Every time I step on the court I try to give it my all, and that’s what I’ve been doing and it’s been working out.”