Tennessee basketball held a practice open to the media on Thursday morning as the Vols continue their fourth week of summer practices. It was the first practice open to the media this summer giving us our first chance to watch Tennessee’s new look team.
Let’s start on the injury side of things where Belmont transfer Tyler Lundblade did not participate as he deals with a back injury that’s been plaguing him. Lundblade did work off to the side and it was rare to catch him missing a shot during three drill shooting. Very much looked like a player who made 219 three-pointers over the last two seasons.
Troy Henderson also did not participate in practice after undergoing shoulder surgery in early April. The sophomore guard is expected to miss the entire summer.
Rick Barnes said following the practice that Tennessee hasn’t “started putting together” a starting lineup yet and that was very much obvious as they went through practice. The two teams were pretty evenly divided up with top players on each team.
For five-on-five team stuff, one team included Dai Dai Ames, Juke Harris, Marquis Clark, Christian Fermin, Ralph Scott and Miles Rubin. The other team included Terrence Hill, Manny Green, Jalen Haralson, DeWayne Brown, Braedan Lue and walk-on Campbell Duncan.
There was no formal scrimmage with Barnes often stopping practice to offer instruction. But I mention the teams to note that two big men were on the court at the same time which seriously limited spacing. I’m sure we will see that some next season, but I believe the Vols will more prominently roll with four guards next season.
That leads me into Haralson who struggled to create high quality looks with a clogged paint. Tennessee often got him touches in the midrange and he struggled to turn them into points for most of the practice but did finish strong. The Notre Dame transfer still has a good deal of work to do on his jump shot which has very little spin on it.
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Those were negatives for Haralson in the first practice we watched, but he made a number of plays on the defensive end and looks like the Vols’ best perimeter defender. Tennessee also worked him at point guard some which could be an interesting wrinkle. The buzz round Haralson has also been positive early this summer so I’m interested to watch him again later this summer.
Tennessee also got Juke Harris the ball with his back to the basket a lot in the half court. It was similar to how they used Nate Ament last year. While Harris doesn’t have the size that Ament does, he’s just a more fluid athlete. Harris had one fantastic stretch where he made a contested corner three and then scored on an and-one driving to his right hand on the following possession.
Either Harris or Terrence Hill was the best player on the court during Thursday’s practice. Hill showed himself to be a three-level scorer who made a handful of plays that stood out. The VCU transfer hit a deep top of the key three-pointer in transition after a defender went under a ball screen. He also had a crafty up and under finish with his left hand in the half court.
Hill also showed some toughness, taking a hit to the face that caused his nose to bleed. The combo guard came back in and finished practice with his nose clogged to stop the bleeding. Hill is certainly a natural combo guard at this point and still has a ways to go in running the offense as a true point guard. But it is June 25 so that isn’t all that surprising.
The same is true for Dai Dai Ames who made some deep contested three-pointers but looked a bit uncomfortable as a distributor at times. That’s an area where this team needs to, and should, grow over the coming months as they get more accustomed to playing with one another.
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Atlanta native Manny Green was the most impressive of the freshmen during Thursday’s practice. The 6-foot-7 guard is very well built for someone his age and showed some real athleticism finishing at the rim and on the defensive end of the court. He also knocked down a pair of three-pointers in team periods.
It’s still early but Green looked like a guy who could carve out a role with his defense and ability to make the tough nosed play the same way Amari Evans did last season.
Sticky with the freshmen, Marquis Clark is not the same undersized, under recruited point guard that Zakai Zeigler and Troy Henderson were. His 6-foot-7 wingspan was fully on display though the Chicago native was a little wild with the ball at times.
Ralph Scott and Chris Washington each look the part on the wing. Washington did drill work with the big men but didn’t show a whole lot during the five-on-five portion of practice. Barnes was on Scott throughout practice. The lanky wing had some nice moments though but did not finish practice. It looked like he turned his left ankle and he was later getting treatment on that foot.
Turning fully to the front court, DeWayne Brown looked like the Vols best big man during Thursday’s practice. He showed good touch around the rim and was strong defensively and on the glass. Barnes praised Brown’s work to this point in the offseason following the practice.
Miles Rubin got the best of Brown on one rep, catching a bounce pass on the short roll, taking one dribble and dunking on Brown. He also caught an alley oop that Ames threw a bit behind him and flushed it from one hand.
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Rubin did not show much touch around the rim with his offensive skillset reminding me a lot of Felix Okpara. I don’t believe the Loyola (Chicago) transfer is near the defender as Okpara but the Vols need him to bring rim protection to this team.
Kennesaw State transfer Braedan Lue had a couple really bad turnovers and an ugly shot in the half court but his role is going to be as a Swiss Army knife defensively and he made a number of hustle plays. He also had a really nice block on a Juke Harris driving layup.
VCU transfer Christian Fermin didn’t show a whole lot on either end of the court but looked like he belonged from an offensive standpoint.
I’m excited to watch this team again later in the summer and hopefully see lineups with more spacing. That will tell us more about how the guards can create off the dribble and how the big men can defend the basket.
