Tennessee basketball revealed bad news on a rare week off, announcing that Cade Phillips was undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery. Phillips had been battling the shoulder injury all season after re-injuring it back in the summer before eventually having to shut things down for the year.
The Vols are generally well equipped to handle the season-ending injury, but it is opening the possibility for Tennessee to try out a new, small-ball lineup.
“We’ve already started trying to teach Amari Evans, so if we ever need to go small, and because of his strength, his physicality, we think he can give us some of that,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said on the Mike Keith Show this week. “And we’ll continue to do that probably. And depending on with Nate (Ament), offensively Nate could go anywhere on the court. So we’ll play around with it, which is part of making coaching fun.”
Tennessee still has four capable big men without Phillips. Jaylen Carey will likely move into the starting lineup alongside Felix Okpara while freshman DeWayne Brown will see increased minutes as a backup big man along with JP Estrella.
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While Tennessee has capable players to step up in Phillips’ absence, the junior power forward has an ability to defend on the perimeter that the rest of Tennessee’s front court does not. The Vols will be able to get away without that on some nights, but certain matchups will exploit that as an issue.
That’s where Evans enters the scene. The true freshman has played a bigger role in the last two games, coming off the bench for 10 minutes against Illinois and six minutes against Syracuse as a defensive stopper.
Evans is a 6-foot-5, 220-pound wing who shines on the defensive end of the court. He’s averaging just 0.6 points and 2.3 rebounds per game but his build and defense first mentality makes it plausible that he could hold up against stretch fours.
Tennessee playing small could also lead to Nate Ament playing more at the four-spot with some combination of Bishop Boswell, Amaree Abram and Ethan Burg playing the wing spots. A small ball lineup could help open driving lanes for Ament and Ja’Kobi Gillespie— something that’s been an issue for Tennessee amidst its three-game losing streak.
