Everything Josiah-Jordan James said after returning to the floor for Tennessee

Josiah-Jordan James returned to the floor for No. 8 Tennessee in the 87-53 win over Mississippi State Tuesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena. The senior wing, who had missed the last four games and eight of the first 13 this season with knee soreness, scored eight points and had four assists in 17 minutes.

Here’s everything James said about his knee, how it feels and the process of getting back during his postgame press conference:

If the knee feels different at this point and if he’s pain free

“It definitely does. I’m on some new medicine. I’ve been on it for about three-or-four days now. It’s definitely just helped with the pain. I haven’t felt any pain since three-or-four days ago when I got on the new medicine so hopefully we just keep moving forward and keep treatment up right now.”

The emotional toll this season has had on him and the standing ovation he received from Tennessee fans

“It’s been a lot. It’s been really tough, but I give a lot of credit to my teammates, my family and first and foremost God because without him I wouldn’t be in this position. It’s been a lot of dark days where I’m doing all the treatments I need to from (trainer) Chad (Newman) and ‘G’ (strength coach Garrett Mendenwald) and there’s days where I felt like I wasn’t getting any better. So it was really frustrating, but like I said, credit to my teammates, coaches and family because they never let me get too down on myself and I knew that like anything, this storm will pass. To be greeted like I was today was hard to describe. It gave me chills. Vol nation is my home. I feel like I’m a part of Vol nation and those guys and fans are second to none. I feel like they know the work we put in, I put in on a daily basis and they just appreciate that. They appreciate how I play hard. Just knowing that it doesn’t go unnoticed means a lot.”

If he approached this time sitting out differently than the first one

“Yeah, definitely. Because the first time, like coach said, I wasn’t 100% or I don’t feel like anywhere close to it, so we had to go back to the drawing board and get back to square one. I feel like we just broke everything down. Chad and G, we took a completely different approach and I feel like it helped out a lot. Hopefully, we can just keep moving forward. This approach was definitely different from the last ones and I feel 1,000 times better than I did before.”

What he missed most during his time away from playing

“Just competing. I feel like me as a competitor, us as a group, we practice so hard. You guys see it when y’all come to practice. Being able to play against other teams and do the things you practice on a day-to-day basis and kind of, not beat up on a team but I love the physicality of the game. Being able to play physical against other guys on this stage whether we’re playing on the road or playing here— which is the best arena in the nation. Just being able to go out there and compete with my teammates, my brothers and play in front of the best fans in the world.”

Missing his first two shots, then settling in

“The first shot, I knew I had missed it. It didn’t come out of my hand right. The second one felt good. It just kind of rattled around and I thought, ‘here we go, not going to be one of those days,’ but credit to my teammates, they told me to keep shooting and of course I will. They gave me the confidence that I need and seeing the ball go in is a big confidence booster. I feel like everybody made shots. That’s what we do on a day-to-day basis. Granted, we made a high percentage of them, but those are the shots we take day in and day out. Thankfully they were able to fall today.”

Up Next: No. 8 Tennessee at South Carolina, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network

If he had a moment in recent days when he knew his knee felt right

“Yeah, when we were doing layup lines I felt bouncy. I felt good. Sometimes it was kind of like the landing part that would trigger it and upset my knee and it felt good, so I knew tonight that I was going to be fine in terms of my knee in warmups.”

The emotions of dealing with the knee over the last three days

“Definitely a lot of relief and a lot of excitement. Just knowing that I was going to be as close to my best as I can be with regards to my shape. I feel like I need to get in much better shape to play the type of minutes the team needs from me, but as far as my knee goes, that was really my only concern. To be able to go out and practice and workouts, and to be able to move around and not feel any pain, was just so much relief. I give a lot of credit to Chad and G for sticking with me because I know it’s not only been a tough process for me, but for them as well because they stay up late at night trying to figure out ways and different things for me to do, so I give up a lot of credit to them as well.”

The emotions after his dunk

“Just so much excitement. I knew (Zakai Zeigler) was going to find me. I didn’t know if the defender would help or go guard him or try to take me out, but I know Zakai being the point guard — point God — that he is, he was going to find me. Shoutout to Zakai, he had 10 assists. After I dunked the ball, it was just a lot of emotion. I don’t really know exactly what I did. I’ll have to go look on video. I don’t remember. I just remember a lot of screaming, yelling and my teammates came. I think it was the timeout right after that, so they just applauded me and gave me a couple slaps on the back of the head.”

The changes Tennessee trainer Chad Newman and strength coach Garrett Medenwald did differently with his rehab process this time around with him

“So, my glutes aren’t as strong as I need them to be, so we started working on glute activation when jumping and landing. Working on things not only with my knee, but things around my knee to take pressure and relieve pain from the general area that it was hurting, so I strengthen my glutes and my hamstring. I do exercises when I wake up and before I go to sleep. I have a whole routine that I have to do that I feel has definitely paid off.”