KNOXVILLE – With what’s left of his first season as Tennessee’s basketball coach, Rick Barnes would like to see his three freshmen continue to develop.
Shembari Phillips, Admiral Schofield and Kyle Alexander all have shown flashes of promise in their first season with the Volunteers, but there’s still progress for them to make before they become sophomores and, along with the redshirting Lamonte Turner, form the nucleus of Barnes’ second Tennessee team.
“I told our young guys yesterday (that) they’re not young anymore,” Barnes said Monday. “They’re closer to being sophomores than they are freshmen. And nowadays sophomores are sometimes considered pretty old with all the people that leave early and all that.”
True freshmen have accounted for 40 percent of Tennessee’s scoring in the past three games with senior and leading scorer Kevin Punter Jr. sidelined, and Saturday against Arkansas was the first time since 2007 the Vols started a lineup with three true freshmen.
Those three will stick in the starting lineup for tonight’s game at Vanderbilt.