KNOXVILLE – During Lamonte Turner’s absence this season, Tennessee men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes continually talked about how much the team needed the 6-foot-2 guard back and healthy from a lingering shoulder injury.
Days like Saturday prove why.
Turner scored 23 points, his most this season, in the top-ranked Volunteers’ 83-66 win over West Virginia in a Big 12/SEC Challenge game Saturday. Barnes inserted the junior into the starting lineup – Turner’s first start since a 2017 Southeastern Conference tournament game against Georgia – due to the possibility of the visiting Mountaineers’ full-court pressure defense.
Turner said he found out at the beginning of Saturday’s shootaround he would start, but there had been previous conversations between him and Barnes suggesting he could return to the starting lineup soon.
The Vols (18-1, 6-0), winners of 14 straight, return to competition with Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. game at South Carolina (10-9, 5-1).
“He is another dynamic,” Tennessee junior forward Grant Williams said after Saturday’s win. “He gives us another guy that can shoot the ball and run on the offensive end. He does a great job on defense as well.
“We have a lot of different lineups that we can use. I feel like that is what makes us so effective; it doesn’t matter who starts, it just matters that we are bringing what we do best to the game.”
Turner brought offense to the game in the first half when the Vols were in great need of some. With Tennessee trailing 8-2, he knocked down a 3-pointer. He made another 3 while contributing five points to a 17-0 run that turned the Vols’ 12-point deficit into a 24-19 lead.
All three of his 3-pointers in the game came in the first half, when he scored 11 points and played the sort of defensive role Barnes has been imploring him to fill for a while.
“I thought he let down when he gave up a 3 where it was probably my fault for leaving him out there too long,” Barnes said. “I think he was going on five minutes at that point in time. But Lamonte can really defend if he wants to, he really can. He showed some of that today.”
The Vols, of course, want Turner to contribute whether he’s on the court at tipoff or coming off the bench.
“I actually talked to him about it, and he doesn’t care if he starts,” Barnes said. “But I thought he came in and really was good. He’s not going to play perfect, but overall, I thought he did a good job.”
Turner missed Tennessee’s first three games this season before returning for the next three, but he struggled to get into an offensive rhythm – he was 5-for-28 from 3-point range in that stretch – and missed the next six games as he continued to recover from offseason surgery. When he returned again, in the Vols’ SEC opener against Georgia, he was 0-for-3 on 3-point attempts and had just six points, though he did receive a standing ovation from the Thompson-Boling Arena crowd.
Obviously no longer feeling the effects of his shoulder trouble, last season’s SEC co-sixth man of the year has gotten into a flow, averaging 13.2 points on 13-for-26 shooting from 3-point range in the six games since.
In the process, he has alleviated some of the scoring load carried by Williams and Admiral Schofield, who has struggled shooting in recent games.
“I always want to come through for my teammates, and I want to do whatever I can to help us get the win,” Turner said. “Tonight, we were settling for shots and we weren’t playing through our bigs like we normally do. It was good to be able to make a couple of shots and get the offense going.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.