KNOXVILLE -- About 10 hours after Tennessee's basketball team returned from a surprising 78-63 win at LSU on Wednesday night, Josh Richardson sat comfortably on a black cushioned folding chair inside the Ray Mears Room in the bowels of Thompson-Boling Arena.
The walls of the reception room, named after the former coach who helped create the Volunteers as a college basketball brand, are covered in images of past men's and women's players and coaches, many of them the most memorable figures in the history of Tennessee's basketball programs.
Set to play his final home game Saturday, Richardson can begin to reflect on his four years with the Vols and ponder the legacy he'll leave.
Perhaps the humble, easygoing Oklahoma native one day will see an image of himself on the same walls he scanned Thursday morning.
"Hopefully. That'd be pretty sweet," Richardson told the Times Free Press. "It's pretty loaded. Maybe they can scratch me a little corner or something.
"I just want to be remembered as one of the best defenders to ever play here, one of the guys that just played hard all the time when he was here and one of the better leaders that's ever played here."
Though the Vols are just 15-14 this season, Richardson likely will cap his career with an All-SEC senior season, one that really began toward the end of last season. That's when the 6-foot-6 former three-star recruit played a key role in getting Tennessee to within seconds of only the second Elite Eight in the program's history.
Richardson's 133 games are the third-most behind Wayne Chism (142) and Cameron Tatum (138) in Tennessee history. Only eight players have started more games than Richardson's 107. He could crack Tennessee's all-time top 10 in steals for a season and career with a few more in what's left of his senior year.
Those only tell part of the story of a player who improved dramatically from his freshman season, when he averaged just 2.9 points per game and shot 35.3 percent overall, 23.7 on 3-pointers and 64 percent at the free-throw line.
"I don't think I want to go back and watch those games," he said, laughing.
This season, Richardson averages 15.7 points per game, good for sixth in the SEC, leads the conference in minutes played and steals and shoots nearly 46 percent from the field, 37 percent on 3s and 79 percent on free throws.
Always a solid player and an excellent defender, Richardson kicked his game into another gear late last season, when then-coach Cuonzo Martin challenged the first player he signed back in 2011 to leave his laid-back, happy-go-lucky nature off the court.
The result was Richardson scoring 17, 15, 26 and 19 points in Tennessee's four NCAA tournament games. He basically kept the Vols in their opening game against Iowa by himself.
"He pulled me to the side and told me straight up I've got to stop goofing around so much," Richardson recalled.
"I think that was big for me to draw the line between business and play time, and I think I have that figured out."
Richardson still remains the type of kid who takes as much pride in dominating his teammates in hotel-room video games on road trips as he does in putting up performances like the 20-point, five-rebound, five-steal game he had against LSU.
The transition from Martin to Donnie Tyndall as coach wasn't easy for Richardson, who admitted he went to eat at IHOP alone one night and sat there for two hours pondering the situation during the transition.
Ultimately, the situation called for Richardson to play out of position for a team lacking size, experience and talent.
"I think after Coach Tyndall got here, I think he made the transition really smooth," Richardson said.
"I just (bought in) because he was my coach at the time. I respect him, and I told him that when he got here. I told him whatever he's going to do, I backed him up. He said whenever I speak in practice or something, he's going to back me up."
Tyndall's coaching style can grind on players, but his straight-shooting approach gets his teams to play extremely hard for him, as evidenced by Tennessee's play this season.
"Josh has been fantastic from the first day I took the job," he said. "I remember my first meeting with him like it was a day ago. He's an upbeat kid. He's got a great smile. He's a worker; he's been coachable.
"He embraced the position as a senior that he's never really played before and welcomed it with open arms. There's a reason our team's had the success we've had, is in large part because of him accepting that role and embracing that role.
"I wish he wasn't a senior, I know that, and I had him another year or two, but he's been fantastic. I've enjoyed coaching him. His family's great. They're at every game and so supportive.
"He's my daughter Gracie's favorite player, too, so that's pretty important to me."
Richardson readily acknowledged his final season at Tennessee hasn't been the easiest, but there's a level of pride he takes in what he and the Vols, despite their limitations, have done so far.
"It's definitely been frustrating," he said. "Especially being the leader of the team, it's hard not to take the burden of those losses, but we've just got to keep fighting through it. I think we've done a good job of being resilient and getting through the hard times, just like we did last night. I think that was a testament to our season."
Richardson shrugged off his role as the face of Tennessee's basketball program, a role in which he's shown the same level of class he has exuded throughout his career.
The next stop, Richardson hopes, is the NBA. With playing point guard, improving his shot and expanding his offensive game, he's certainly improved his stock. The NBA draft can be unkind to four-year college players, though.
"I just want to be playing somewhere," Richardson said, "but I'm going to work as hard as I can to get there."
Playing in the NBA certainly would get Richardson up on some walls at Tennessee quicker.
He may have done enough already to deserve a spot anyway.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.