Rick Barnes on Nate Ament: 'He's really starting to see the game'
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes remembers sitting in the practice gym back in September with player development coordinator Justin Caldwell, talking about their freshman phenom Nate Ament.
The 6-10 wing had come to Tennessee as a McDonald’s All-American and consensus top-five prospect, but his game was raw and his body needed work.
“I said, ‘It might take him til the middle of January to figure this out,'” Barnes recalled of the conversation. “‘But he will figure it out.'”
Hint: it’s happening.
On Wednesday night, in Tennessee’s 86-85 overtime win at Georgia, Ament finished with 19 points, six rebounds and three assists on 7-of-18 shooting from the field. He’s now averaging 21.0 points and 5.8 rebounds over his last five games against quality competition: Florida, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia. He’s also shooting 39% from 3.
Simply put: Ament has officially arrived.
“I’ve told you guys, I think he’s been great all year,” Barnes said. “Everybody — I don’t know what they expected — but for a guy learning to play on the perimeter both offensively and defensively, it’s a hard thing to do coming into this level, knowing that you have a huge target on your back every single night with someone trying to go after you. But Nate, he is really starting to see the game.”
What’s most impressive to Barnes is the change in Ament’s demeanor. Earlier in the season he was quieter, but now he’s starting to take command of huddles. During one of the timeouts against Georgia, after Barnes spoke with the team, Ament huddled up the guys before play resumed.
“He said, ‘Listen here’s what we’re doing,'” Barnes said. “And we haven’t had that. So he’s starting to see the game. When we run some actions, he’s starting to just play out of it, know what he needs to do… Again, he’s been terrific. He’s starting to understand the whole thing the more and more he plays.”
When Ament committed to Barnes, the veteran head coach told the five-star what they’re asking of him is going to be really hard. Barnes said it might take him six months to understand it.
It seems like he’s starting to pick things up.
“He’s gotten so much better, he’s learned so much” sophomore guard Bishop Boswell said. “And we’re going to need him to keep doing that — being vocal, playing hard defense/offense every night for us to be successful. He’s going to blossom. I’m proud of him.”
“He’s just playing great for us,” sophomore big man JP Estrella said. “It’s scary. When he’s going, he’s going… People should be worried about Nate coming in for these SEC games because he’s starting to ball.”
Subscribe to The Field of 68 on YouTube
Subscribe to The Field of 68’s Daily Newsletter
