Nate Ament walked out of his hotel in Rwanda and onto a basketball court.
In a pickup game in the middle of a part-family, part-business trip to Kigali, the Tennessee basketball freshman forward found his competitive spirit showing up against local Rwandan players.
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“Seeing all those kids out there playing pickup just kind of lit a fire inside me,” Ament said on Aug. 20. “I was like, ‘Yeah, why not? I’m going to go play five-on-five with my brother and just kind of play with them.’ They beat us, actually. They beat us one game, but it was awesome.”
Ament spent his final days between Tennessee’s offseason workouts and the start of the fall semester on a trip to Rwanda, his mother’s home country. It was partially about business, but family was foremost on Ament’s mind.
“I was just hanging out with my little cousins all the time,” he said. “That was probably my favorite part — just being with my little cousins I haven’t seen in four years. So I was grateful to get back out there.”
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Ament, the highest-rated recruit in Vols history, was in Rwanda for five days. It was his third visit to see the homeland of his mother, Godelive, and her family. He hiked to see gorillas in the wild. He played soccer in Amahoro Stadium and kicked “the ball a little bit.”
He got in on the pickup basketball runs at Zaria Court.
“In Rwanda, they use sports to drive their economy, their society and everything,” Ament said. “They’re trying to use that just build up their country.”
AMENT: Inside Nate Ament’s final visit with Tennessee basketball, Rick Barnes
Ament and the Vols return to practice in the final week of August to prepare for the 2025-26 season.
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Fourteen of the 15 scholarship players are currently on campus after freshman guard Clarence Massamba arrived from France on Aug. 17.
Israeli guard Ethan Burg is the lone player who has yet to arrive. He will come to UT after he is done playing with the Israeli national team in the upcoming FIBA EuroBasket 2025. He won’t arrive in Knoxville until early September at the earliest as Israel will play its first five games from Aug. 28 to Sept. 4 in Poland. The tournament runs through Sept. 14.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Nate Ament: Tennessee basketball freshman visited Rwanda
