Tennessee basketball: Lamonte Turner played his last game with Vols

In a 75-53 blowout win over the Jacksonville State Gamecocks, Tennessee basketball guard Lamonte Turner played his last game with the Volunteers.

It’s a rough way to end what was a very solid career with Tennessee basketball. But Lamonte Turner played his last game with the Vols in their win over Jacksonville State, which also gave Rick Barnes his 700th career victory.

Turner has been bothered by a shoulder injury all year, one that has limited his ability to shoot the ball effectively from the outside. At the same time, he was making the transition to point guard as a fifth-year senior in an attempt to fill the void Jordan Bone left.

Well, according to reports, he said he decided to have season-ending shoulder surgery. Both Grant Ramey and Wes Rucker tweeted about it after the game. It’s a sad way to end what was a very great run with Tennessee basketball.

So far this year, Turner has averaged just under 13 points and over six and a half assists a game. However, he is shooting 29.3 percent from the field and 23.4 percent from the three-point line, which has been problematic for a while.

Injuries have plagued Turner since he arrived on Rocky Top. He took a redshirt his freshman year because of a season-ending injury, and he missed the first part of 2018-2019 due to one. The shoulder surgery he had in the offseason then slowed him down to start this year.

Without him, Tennessee basketball will have to rely on Josiah-Jordan James, its five-star freshman combo guard, to make the switch to point guard much more quickly than anticipated. On top of that, the Vols need Jordan Bowden, the other go-to senior on the team, to continue shouldering the scoring load.

However, even with that, losing Turner is a major blow. His unselfishness this year truly showed the way he had developed, and if he could have had a healthy shoulder, he would have been a superstar. But it never worked out that way, and he does need to do what’s best for him.