Rick Barnes: 'The lid came off' for Nate Ament in Tennessee's win over Rutgers

LAS VEGAS — Nate Ament passed up an open look early Monday against Rutgers. Tennessee Basketball’s five-star freshman opted instead to keep the ball moving and keep working the offense.

His point guard didn’t like it.

“I got on him,” Ja’Kobi Gillespie said after the game.

Neither did his head coach.

“One thing we’ve told him,” Rick Barnes said, “we don’t doubt it. When you’re open, we expect you to shoot it and we expect it to go in.”

After passing up the open look, and after missing his first 3-point attempt in the Players Era Festival, Ament took the feedback and kept shooting. He finished with 20 points in No. 17 Tennessee’s 85-60 win, going 7-for-14 from the field and making four of his final five 3-point attempts. 

“I feel like he was just kind of letting the game come to him,” Gillespie said, “and not trying to force anything. I feel like he played great offensively.”

Ament got the message. 

“My coaches and everyone was telling me to wake up,” Ament said. “It’s time to go. Let’s get into attack mode. I just listened to them.”

“When your point guard is telling you to (shoot it),” he added later, “you’re going to listen.”

Up Next: No. 17 Tennessee vs. No. 3 Houston, Tuesday, 6 p.m. ET, TNT

The 20 points from Ament is nothing new. He’s scored 15 or more in all six games to start the season. What was different, though, was the 3-point production. 

Ament previously had not made more than two 3-pointers in a game. He made 4 of 10 in wins over Northern Kentucky and Tennessee State, but was just 2-for-14 in his other three games. 

“He’s learned something every game,” Barnes said. “He knows he went through some games where he pressed too hard early, just being a competitive player, wanting to try to make something happen early, as opposed to letting the game come to him. And he’s getting better and better with that.”

Ament is still trying to thread a needle between being part of the offense — “Nate is a very, very unselfish player,” Barnes said — and being the focal point of the offense.

“It has been very tough, actually,” Ament said. “Just learning when to attack and when not to when I’ve got the ball in my hands. Just trying to learn that. 

“Early in the game, trying to find my teammates and get them open shots and trying to run the offense. Then later in the shot clock and later in the game, plays break down and they’re doing a better job guarding it, that’s when you can be more assertive.”

‘He’ll be a different player six weeks from now than he is right now’

The more assertive Ament becomes, the more opposing defenses have to account for. The Vols shot 50.8% from the field and 50.0% from the 3-point line in the win over Rutgers, playing their best 40 minutes of basketball this season while Ament and Gillespie combined for 52 points and 10 threes.

“It opens it up a lot,” Gillespie said, “because (defenses are) not going to help off him and if they do, he’ll make them pay. So just being able to drive those gaps and also play off of him, because he’s obviously a good scorer, but he’s also unselfish, so it really opens it up.”

It opened up for Ament on Monday, after having to be told to shoot it. Then to keep shooting after an early miss. 

“I thought after he missed the first one,” Barnes said, “he really made a great effort to stay down on the next one and you could almost feel like the lid came off of the thought process in terms of, okay, I’m good to go here.

“He’s only going to get better and better. Just understanding how people are guarding him, adjusting from game to game. He really has done a pretty good job overall with that.”

And it’s just the beginning.

“I expect he’ll continue to do that,” Barnes added. “He’ll be a different player six weeks from now than he is right now because of his mindset … whatever it’s going to take to try to help us win games, he’s going to do it.”