It wasn’t quite as efficient as we’ve seen in recent weeks, but once again it was freshman wing Nate Ament making big plays down the stretch to help push Tennessee to another big win. Coming off of a 29 point performance against Alabama over the weekend, Ament put up another 19 in the Volunteers’ overtime win in Athens on Wednesday night.
Ament was 7-18 from the field, shooting 2-5 from three-point range. None were bigger than his dagger three to give Tennessee a five point lead at the midway point of the overtime period. It was another slow start to the night for him, but once again it was Ament who Tennessee ran though when it mattered the most late in the game.
Ament’s ability to get to his spots and get off his shots is hard to stop once he sets his mind to it. We saw that again against Georgia with Ament operating around the paint and using his length to rise above defenders.
“Nate, he is really starting to see the game,” Rick Barnes said after the game. “I love watching him right now talk to the guys. Like during one of the timeouts, I said what I said, and he circled them up and he took control. He said, ‘listen, here’s what we’re doing.’ And he repeated it exactly. We haven’t had that but he’s starting to see the game. Like when we run some actions, he’s starting to just play out of it, know what he needs to do. But we need other guys to see what he’s seeing. Nate again, he’s been terrific.”
“He’s starting to understand the whole thing, too, the more and more he plays.”
Barnes admittedly knew there would be an adjustment period. Ament’s 6-10, thin frame wasn’t used to the physicality of college basketball and that was evident early in the season. Barnes has always went to bat for him though the struggles though, and now you’re seeing that pay off.
“I told him it was gonna be hard,” Barnes said on Wednesday. “I can tell you the last conversation before he committed to us, I said, ‘Nate, this is what we want you to do, but it’s gonna be really, really hard, and it might take you six months to really understand it.’
Ament, once viewed as a top five overall prospect for this summer’s NBA Draft, has seen his stock slip with the struggles. With the light seemingly coming on with about six weeks left to play, it will be interesting to see if that narrative starts to change. At the end of the day, you don’t see many 6-10 guys with his particular skillset. As Barnes has said all season long, it’s a new position and situation at Ament is learning. Now as Tennessee enters the most important stretch of the season, Ament is coming into his own.
“I’ve never seen him in a bad mood, ever,” Barnes said. “Even as hard as I get on him sometimes, but I think he understands. When I say get on him, I’m just pushing him, you know? Because I just know with him, he’s just getting started.”
