Tennessee basketball’s Nate Ament earned the inaugural SEC Freshman of the Week honor on Monday after a pair of strong performances in the Vols’ wins over Mercer and Northern Kentucky.
Ament averaged 20.5 points on 52% shooting from the field and 37.5% shooting from three-point range while also averaging 8.5 rebounds and three assists in the two games.
The wing opened his career with a 18 points and nine rebounds in a win over Mercer before putting together an even better showing against Northern Kentucky. Ament scored 23 points on six-of-12 shooting from the field while adding eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. He scored 15 of his 23 points in the the first eight minutes of the second half.
“I thought he was assertive,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said of Ament. “I thought not just what he was doing driving the ball, his passes over the top of the zone were big. Thought he was really starting to see the court better.”
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Ament was the highest rated signee in the modern era of Tennessee basketball history, ranking as the No. 4 player in the 2025 recruiting class according to the 247sports composite rankings.
The freshman class in college basketball has looked stellar so far this season with Duke’s Cameron Boozer, North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson, Arizona’s Koa Peat, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa all putting together strong performances during the opening week of the season.
Alabama sophomore Labaron Philon earned SEC Player of the Week honors to begin the season after averaging 23.5 points, 5.5 assists and three rebounds in a pair of Crimson Tide wins. Philon went for a career-high 25 points in Alabama’s win at St. John’s.
Ament and Tennessee are back at it for just one game this week, hosting North Florida at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Wednesday night.
