Tennessee basketball’s youth movement was on full display in the Vols’ 85-71 win over Texas on Tuesday night in Knoxville. A quartet of Tennessee freshmen combined for 22 points, 12 rebounds, seven steals and four assists in 78 minutes of action.
“I think at one time today one of the coaches, Coach (Bryan) Lentz tapped me and said you realize we’ve got three freshmen on the court?” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said postgame. “In your second conference game, I think that really is a tribute to those guys because they’ve earned their right to be out there.”
DeWayne Brown got the scoring going with a dunk an turned in the best game of his career given the competition. He was solid on both ends of the court and finished the night with 10 points on five-of-seven shooting from the field while grabbing four rebounds.
“The more he plays, the better he’s going to get,” Barnes said. “He’s worked at it, had a tough cover tonight, but I thought for the most part did a really good job. And he’s starting to get more and more comfortable.”
The most interesting development was in the backcourt where Amari Evans and Troy Henderson lapped more experienced Ethan Burg and Amaree Abram in minutes. Evans didn’t play more than 13 minutes in any game in non conference play. But Evans has totaled 23 minutes in each of Tennessee’s first two SEC games.
He’s earning his minutes and making the most of it. Evans followed up a phenomenal showing at Arkansas with another solid night, totaling four points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists.
“Amari (Evans) still makes some big-time plays when we need them,” Barnes said.
More From RTI: Everything Tennessee HC Rick Barnes Said After Win Over Texas
Barnes said he made a mistake not playing Henderson at Arkansas and the freshman combo guard totaled eight minutes off the bench against the Longhorns. Henderson didn’t light up the stat sheet and took a three-pointer that Barnes didn’t like, but the 11th-year Tennessee head coach was not perturbed postgame.
“He’s earned it. We’re going do it,” Barnes said. “We’ll keep playing him because he’ll keep working at it.”
Compare Evans and Henderson’s 31 combined minutes to Amaree Abram and Ethan Burg’s seven combined minutes. Burg didn’t play at all while five of Abram’s seven minutes came after the Henderson three-point attempt that Barnes did not like.
“Ethan (Burg) didn’t play tonight, we’ll see if he’s going to fight back, you know? Mo (Amaree Abram) didn’t play very much,” Barnes said. “We felt those guys, we’ve given them a lot of time to do it, and we felt that we had to give Troy (Henderson) a chance.”
Nate Ament was the fourth freshman that played a big role against Texas. It was a mixed night for Ament, who totaled four steals, five rebounds and two assists, but also turned it over five teams and took just four shots.
Ament is the most important freshman on this year’s team because his ceiling is by far the highest. He can change Tennessee’s season more than anyone else on the roster. But the three others seizing larger roles is a fascinating development with this Tennessee team and speaks to the freshman class the Vols’ have.
“I’d say they’re the most mature freshmen I’ve probably ever played with,” point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie said. “All of them can really make an impact on the court. So it’s really cool to see how much they’ve come along since the summer.
