With Tennessee basketball finalizing its summer slate of practices, Vols freshman DeWayne Brown II met with the media for the first time.
Brown is a four-star forward who ranked as the No. 91 player in the country and No. 12 center, according to 247’s composite rankings. He was considered the top-ranked player out of Alabama from Hoover High School.
Here’s what Brown said when meeting with the media.
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On his ‘Welcome to Tennessee’ moment
“Probably, I would say the first or second week, and Coach was yelling at Amari Evans. He was yelling at him about something, I forgot, and he was just looking at him and Amari was just looking back. And Coach Barnes was like, ‘Don’t look at me.’ He sent Amari to the Versaclimber. I was just like, that’s crazy.”
On his experience with the Versaclimber
“When I was first doing it, it was super hard. But we get sent to it so much, you get used to it.”
On playing for Rick Barnes
“When you’re getting recruited here, they don’t really sugarcoat it at all. You already know what it’s going to be. When you get here, you just gotta kind of have your mindset already forward to get through it.”
On if he feels overlooked, why he picked Tennessee
“A little bit, I do. At the same time, I feel like God gave me this path. At the end of the day, I like where I’m at so I’m just gonna go ahead and grind it out here.”
On what he likes about being at Tennessee
“Of course, Rick Barnes, he’s a hard coach. He’s going to stay on you. He cares about you on and off the court at the same time. Everybody around here is just family oriented.”
On if he’s always been the ‘hardest worker on the team’
“I would say it’s always been my mindset. Especially in high school, as I was getting recruited, I was definitely very out of shape coming from high school. I would always get in the gym very early in high school. Like 5 a.m. and workout and stuff before practice. I feel like that kind of helped me when I got here to just carry over the same work mentality.”
On going against Felix Okpara, Cade Phillips, other Tennessee forwards
“It’s hard, definitely challenging. Very physical in the post. I just feel like when I first got here that was something I had to get used to, just being able to hit and play super physical like they do in the SEC.”
On adjusting to the SEC physicality
“It’s definitely hard. And like I was saying, it’s definitely super physical. When you’re coming out from high school, me being bigger than everyone in high school, I might try to hit somebody and I’ll imediately get a foul, but then out here, I can do that and there’s no call or no nothing. It’s kind of just a mentality thing, just know I can do that and I can play hard.”
On matching up with Jaylen Carey
“Jaylen, he’s a good player. Very big, broad, strong dude. He likes to get to the rim a lot. He’s a good player.”
On not being put in a box
“That’s always a good thing, being able to come in and get your own feel for the game instead of somebody telling you one specific thing that you gotta do. But then at the same time, you want to come out and do what you’re good at. I feel like I’m kind of doing the same things I was doing in high school. Trying to rebound, trying to throw out the post, getting face-ups, working the post. At the same time, it’s a good thing to know he’s not going to put any limitations on me.”
