KNOXVILLE – There will be no grace period for the Tennessee men’s basketball freshman class.
The group will be expected to contribute. Immediately.
The quartet of guard Josiah-Jordan James, wing Davonte Gaines and forwards Olivier Nkamhoua and Drew Pember will be needed to carve out roles this season, according to coach Rick Barnes. There’s also another freshman, 7-foot Uros Plavsic, who will be just as integral if he receives an NCAA waiver to play immediately after transferring from Arizona State in the offseason.
“I have seen a group of guys that want to be taught basketball,” Barnes said last week. “They are open-minded, and the fact they have bought into what the older guys have told them about the work ethic it takes and what is expected within our program, it has been a fun group of guys to be around. They have embraced the fact that they know they walked into a situation where there is going to be an opportunity for them to play certainly.
“They have been open-minded to the older guys, which is always a great sign.”
The losses of Kyle Alexander, Jordan Bone, Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams – all battling for roles in the NBA now – created a void in experience in a lot of places. The Volunteers have some guys who have played, but other than senior guards Jordan Bowden and Lamonte Turner, only two players – juniors John Fulkerson and Yves Pons – have been asked to contribute consistently in the past.
James was the most heralded of the new group, as the former five-star prospect is in line to take a lead guard position alongside Bowden and Turner. But Barnes noted that Nkamhoua, a late addition to the class, clearly wants to make an immediate impact as well. Plavsic will be prepared to fill a role similar to the departed Alexander, although he and Alexander have completely different skill sets.
Barnes realizes that to be successful, he’s going to need a couple from the group to contribute immediately. It’s been a big part of the team’s offseason plan, trying to get players ready to take some pressure off Bowden and Turner. That’s not just on the offensive end; it’s also on the defense, where the coaching staff is working on developing those players to be ready to contribute when their number is called.
To their credit, Barnes noted that the freshmen are “getting better” defensively.
“Like I think you would expect any young group of guys,” he said. “And we will try to do some different things, but there are base things you have to get in with them. One of the base things starts out with competing every possession – learning how to go from one play to the next play within that one possession. That’s what they’re learning.
“I do think that they got better this year understanding the tempo of the game, much quicker than they dealt with in high school. We are a team that, we like to attack. We want to run. We want to pick up full court if we can. We want to stay active, and depending on how well our young guys adapt will determine really how many people we end up playing.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.