When Tennessee senior forward John Fulkerson suffered a concussion and a facial fracture three minutes into the second half of Friday afternoon’s Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinal victory over Florida, sixth-year Volunteers coach Rick Barnes had less than 24 hours to prepare for his absence in Saturday’s semifinal against top-seeded Alabama.
Getting that first opportunity was 7-foot, 262-pound redshirt sophomore Uros Plavsic, who played 17 minutes against the Crimson Tide and collected four points, three rebounds two assists and one steal during the 73-68 loss. Barnes now has more time to formulate personnel decisions should Fulkerson be unable to go Friday afternoon when the fifth-seeded Vols (18-8) face 12th-seeded Oregon State (17-12) in an NCAA tournament Midwest Regional first-round game in Indianapolis, but Plavsic certainly didn’t damage his chances with his performances in Nashville.
“Uros did some good things in the tournament,” Barnes said this past weekend on a Zoom call from Nashville. “He’s shown us in the last two weeks that he’s really, honestly, finally bought into exactly what we want him to do, which is exciting. It really is. Sometimes it takes players a little bit longer. His length was good.
“We trust him now because he’s buying into the role that we need him to play.”
The Tennessee-Oregon State game is scheduled to tip around 4:30, and it will be televised by TNT.