Sophomore forward Cade Phillips is making 71.1% of his shots this season for top-ranked Tennessee.
Dunks have a way of helping such accuracy.
The 6-foot-9, 216-pounder from Jacksonville, Alabama, is finding his role with the Volunteers, who will seek a 10-0 start when they visit Illinois on Saturday (5:30 p.m. Eastern on Fox) in a rematch of last December’s game that Tennessee won 86-79 inside the Food City Center. Phillips is averaging 18 minutes a game and 7.6 points per contest after getting in just 13 of 36 games last season and averaging less than a point (0.9).
“Cade has gained a lot of confidence,” Vols assistant coach Rod Clark said Thursday in a news conference. “Cade’s a tough dude, and he always has been. I remember in the process of recruiting him and watching him in high school, you could just tell that everything in front of him was going to be his best basketball, and you were excited.
“I’ve never been around a guy who everybody in the gym knows he’s going to dunk, and he just keeps dunking. He’s laid his mark on every one of our games, and he’s been a spark plug off the bench.”