It’s safe to say that Nate Ament is settling into his role at Tennessee quite nicely after two games. The can’t miss former five-star prospect scored 23 points in 24 minutes on Saturday against Northern Kentucky, while also grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out five assists.
Ament showed us a little bit of everything, fighting through contact and finishing, drawing fouls and using his length to shoot over defenders. He also connected on two of his four three-point attempts.
Advertisement
“Well, again, I think he’s young,” Rick Barnes said after the game. “I mean, you think about he’s three, four games out of high school. But he’s a good player, and the more he plays and, one, he works at it. He takes serious our scouting reports. He’s got respect for who we’re playing, but he’s starting to understand more and more each day what he’s capable of doing and what he’ll find out here early every game is gonna be a little bit different.”
Aggressiveness has not been an issue for Ament to this point. The freshman wing has taken 11 and 12 shots in his first two games, connecting on 52 percent of his shots from the field. It’s early, and the competition hasn’t been great, but Ament is averaging 20.5 points per game. Ament’s 23 points were the most by a Tennessee freshman since Julian Phillips scored 25 against USC back in 2022. He didn’t take a shot in the final 12 minutes of the game.
He’s also affecting the game on the boards and also with his passing ability.
Advertisement
“It’s great for his teammates, because he’s a very unselfish player,” Barnes said. “I mean, he enjoys passing the basketball. How many assists did he have today? Five. Again, I think his versatility separates him from a lot of players, and his humility, and the fact he’s humble, and he’s going to continue to work. He’s not satisfied. But again, the more he gets to do this, the better he’s going to get.”
Ament’s de facto debut in the Duke exhibition was overshadowed by a ridiculous effort from Cameron Boozer, who ended up with a 20+/20+ game. However, we’re seeing why some had Ament as the No. 1 overall player in this class and why he’s a very likely lottery pick this summer. He simply overpowered inferior competition on Saturday, which is all you can ask of an emerging young talent in November.
Tennessee has three more tune-up type games on the schedule before heading to Las Vegas, where things will get real against Rutgers and Houston. We’ll learn quite a bit more about where he stacks up against some of these other stud freshmen around the country then.
