KNOXVILLE - Olivier Nkamhoua wants his game to be unique.
But don't blame the Tennessee freshman basketball forward if he looks around for tips.
The 6-foot-8 Nkamhoua, the last of the Volunteers' four-player freshman class to sign, took a unique route to Tennessee. The Finland native came to the United States before his 11th-grade year, spending that year with his father Christian and going to Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland.
He missed most of that basketball season due to a leg injury, but he played well at the 2018 Capitol Hoops Summer League, which helped get his name on the radar of a number of college coaches.
He transferred to Bishop Walsh School as a senior but was relatively unheralded for much of that season until the spring, when Tennessee, Illinois and Maryland came calling.
He chose the Vols, where he will be one of a number of players tasked with filling the role of Grant Williams, who departed for the NBA after consecutive selections as Southeastern Conference player of the year.
"We're excited about him," Vols coach Rick Barnes said recently. "He's talented - one of those players learning that it's a different game, and that he does have the ability to score, but like all players, he has to learn how to get down lower, how to fight for space on the floor. He can't just walk over and get where he could a year ago. He's going to have to really fight for it, because he's playing against a guy like Yves Pons every day, who's going to fight him for every step, but he's improved a lot.
"All of our guys have improved, but he's really figured out the fact he wants to be a good player. And he knows he has to add some things to what he's doing right now, as all players do, but it takes some of them longer to figure out, and he's figured out early what we need him to do. They all come in with the idea of what they want to do. A big part of coaching is getting them to understand what you need them to do, and helping them to continue to stretch their game and grow. But he's starting to really understand what we need from him."
Nkamhoua mentioned a number of former and current NBA players he looks to pattern his game after. Scottie Pippen. Dennis Rodman. Paul George. Giannis Antetokounmpo. LeBron James. Joel Embiid. Hakeem Olajuwon.
Also, Grant Williams.
"There's a lot of players I can learn from," he told the Times Free Press at the Vols' media day. "I'm adapting a lot into my game and then molding those things into my own way. Grant Williams had some great moves - his high release was deadly. That's something I'm trying to have. It may not be a Grant Williams-high release, but it'll be my type of high release, which I might have learned from watching Grant play a little bit."
Not lacking for confidence, Nkamhoua said he's ready to be at Tennessee "for however long I need to." But after moving around, he's ready to be a part of a team and a culture that, in the past couple of seasons, has been rooted in winning.
And he's ready to help maintain that.
"I'm ready to contribute. However many minutes I get, I want to play as hard as I can in those minutes and have fun," he said.
"My excitement level is as high as it can be. I'm nervous, but I'm so much more excited than nervous that I forget I'm nervous. I'm looking forward to the first game, but making sure that every practice I get better. I'm making sure every day I sleep well, I eat well, I get stronger, I feel better and I stay healthy."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.