The NCAA announced last October that all Division I, II and III student-athletes in fall and winter sports would receive an extra year of eligibility whether they competed during these recent months or not.
Veteran Tennessee forward John Fulkerson vividly remembers the moment.
“I was actually in quarantine,” Fulkerson said Tuesday. “Coach (Rick) Barnes called me with one of our assistants and said, ‘Are you coming back?’ I said, ‘No, I’ve been here long enough.’
“I did not think for a single second that I would come back.”
Fulkerson, who received a medical redshirt after dislocating his elbow 10 games into his freshman season in 2016-17 and played this past winter as a fifth-year senior, announced last Friday that he would be returning for the unique sixth year on the court. This past season did not go as planned for Fulkerson or the Volunteers, who started out 10-1 before splitting their final 16 games, which included a lethargic 70-56 loss to Oregon State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.