KNOXVILLE – If you need an illustration into how inconsistent freshman college basketball players can be, look no further than the week Shembari Phillips just had.
The Tennessee guard followed up a career-best 23-point performance at Vanderbilt with two points against Ole Miss less than four days later.
It broke a four-game streak of double-figure scoring for Phillips.
“Young guys, sometimes they think every game is going to be the same,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Monday. “The game was different. We were playing against a team that we knew they were going to press. We knew they were going to fall back in some zones. I thought that he got rattled, and he let it affect him.”
That’s bound to happen with a freshman, particularly one who is playing out of position. Too often against the Rebels, according to Barnes, Phillips took the ball into bad spots on the floor.