KNOXVILLE - A season ago, Rick Barnes had a ready-made basketball roster full of experienced players who helped propel Tennessee to a fast start, one that resulted in the Volunteers ascending to No. 1 in the country, where they lived for a month.
While other teams' rosters were being developed over the course of the season, Tennessee had no new pieces to infuse. There were no growing pains that the team needed to go through; if other top teams were 50-60% of who they were going to be at the beginning of last season, the Vols were probably somewhere between 85 and 90%.
Simply put, there wasn't much room for the team to get better, and while it was consistently good (31 wins and the Sweet 16), there wasn't much novelty as to where individual improvement and growth could occur.
The biggest surprise was the progress of point guard Jordan Bone, whose production skyrocketed from prior seasons to getting him selected in the second round of the NBA draft.
This season, that hasn't been - nor will it be - the case for the 21st-ranked Vols (6-1), who host Florida A&M (0-6) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Thompson-Boling Arena. The Vols haven't underachieved, nor have they overachieved in the early part of the season. They have a pair of Top 25 wins over Washington and Virginia Commonwealth, the latter coming on a last-second 3-pointer by senior Lamonte Turner to win the top-tier third-place game of the Emerald Coast Classic last weekend, but other than Turner, classmate and fellow guard Jordan Bowden and junior forward John Fulkerson, this season started with a lot of unknowns.
Tennessee guard Yves Pons (35) works for a shot as he's defended by Chattanooga guard Matt Ryan (32) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Monday, Nov. 25, 2019, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)Yves Pons - a career 1.6 point-per-game scorer entering this season who's currently averaging 12.4 points and shooting 39% from 3-point range - has nailed down a big role.
A freshman class led by guard Josiah-Jordan James is slowly developing, and if there's a silver lining to the upcoming schedule that includes contests against 15th-ranked Memphis, Cincinnati and Wisconsin before Southeastern Conference play, it's that there is a lot of potential for improvement.
"It is really simple right now. We have to not only get better as individuals, but as a team," Barnes said Monday. "We know there are things that we have to do defensively and offensively to get better, but some of it is you just have to believe what you practice (when) people won't let you get to your first option.
"I think that is what this group learned more than anything, is that it is going to take more than one option to score the basketball. It looked like we were just trying to make one pass and make a shot, and we locked to one side of the floor. We need to get better at moving from side to side."
But how good can James be? His shot is still a work in progress, but he does lead the team with 7.1 rebounds per game. Barnes has been high on forward Olivier Nkamhoua and said Monday that he is "as talented as any player that we have on our team." How good can he become? Swingman Davonte Gaines and forward Drew Pember have shown flashes of ability. What happens if those flashes become consistent?
"It'll help a lot. The deeper our bench is will obviously help us as a team," Turner said. "Jalen and those guys have really been improving over the past few games. Jalen showed some toughness last game and played some great minutes. Same thing with Davonte - those guys are learning, and once they figure it out we are going to be a really good team, because those guys can come in and really help us win some games."
A team is only as good as its options. Tennessee currently doesn't have many, but the fact that some could be developing gives reason for optimism.
And room for growth, something the Vols didn't have a year ago.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.