Tennessee freshman Nate Ament has been finding his scoring rhythm in the Vols’ last few games. Through the Vols’ December slate and the first two SEC games in January, Ament was averaging 11.1 points per game. His scoring was servicable at times, but wasn’t anywhere close to his potential.
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes and the Vols’ coaching staff maintained their belief in the highly-touted freshman, urging that they still felt like it was going to all come together at some point. Ament’s last five game has shown why that belief was warranted.
In Ament’s last five games against SEC competition, he’s averaging 21.0 points per game. He tallied a pair of 17-point outings against Florida and Kentucky, 19 points against Georgia, 23 points against Texas A&M, and a career-high 29 points against Alabama.
“It was just a matter of time to where you felt like he would get the flow, the confidence and the vision to see where and how he needed to attack,” Barnes said about Ament after the Alabama game and before Wednesday’s Georgia game. “And he’s done that really — and I really think it started in the Florida game. He’s put, what, four games (together) where I think he really knows where he needs to go to work.”
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Part of the reason for Ament’s rising scoring success is the fact that he’s been getting more shots up with an assertive mindset. In three out of the last four games, he’s taken 16 or more attempts from the field. The outlier of that quartet of games was the Kentucky loss. While he still racked up 17 points, he only had seven shots from the floor.
“Nate needs more than seven shots,” Barnes said after the Kentucky game. “He does. And we’ll get that. But Nate’s just getting so much better. He really is. And he had 17 today, made his free throws. But he needs more than seven shots. And some of it, he’s going to have to go get it and make that happen.”
After that game and those comments, Ament went for 29 points against Alabama on 10-of-20 shooting and 19 points against Georgia on 7-of-18 shooting. It hasn’t always been perfect, but it’s clear to see that something might be smoothing out in how Ament sees his shots from the floor.
On the season as a whole, Ament is averaging 16.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. He’s shooting 41.8% from the floor, 30% from three-point range, and 75.9% from the free-throw line. In his last five games alone, he’s been shooting 45.8% from the floor, 38% from three, and 80% from the free-throw line.
ESPN’s Jeff Borzello and Myron Medcalf listed Ament as the 45th-best player in college basketball this week, but that ranking could see a big rise if Ament continues to play the way that he has of late.
Tennessee will return to action this weekend with a Saturday night matchup against Auburn in the Food City Center.
