Tennessee basketball’s seniors exemplify best of Rick Barnes

Although he may come under fire at times, Rick Barnes has a knack for developing talent and making players more complete. When Tennessee basketball hosts the Florida Gators Sunday, it will celebrate two seniors who exemplify that in a big way.

John Fulkerson and Yves Pons are two totally different players from totally different backgrounds. When he arrived on Rocky Top in 2016, Fulkerson was a tall, lanky and unathletic big man from Kingsport, Tenn. who provided limited value. Pons was a four-star out of France who, despite his rating, was extremely raw with no refined skills.

However, as Grant Ramey of GoVols247 wrote back in 2017, Pons committed to Tennessee basketball specifically for Barnes’ ability to develop talent. Four years later, that decision proved to be a brilliant one. We’ll get to Pons later.

Let’s get back to Fulkerson for now. He suffered a season-ending injury as a freshman and took a redshirt. In 2017-2018, he struggled. When Kyle Alexander was injured in the NCAA Tournament, he got the nod in the second round against the No. 11 seed Loyola-Chicago Ramblers. His struggles had a huge role in the No. 3 seed Vols being upset that day.

A year later, Fulkerson began playing 12 minutes a game, but he was still barely in the rotation. Then, in 2019-2020, he immediately had to be inserted into the starting lineup with the losses of Alexander, Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield. More pressure was put on him after Lamonte Turner had season-ending shoulder surgery in December.

While Jordan Bowden was the only proven scorer at that point, Fulkerson became a breakout star by the end of January. After never scoring more than 20 points a game, he did it in four of his final 10 games that season, including 27 points in an upset win at the Kentucky Wildcats. In the process, he became the team’s leading scorer and blossomed into an All-SEC player.

So a guy who could barely register any minutes just a year before became a star after three years in Barnes’ program. He has taken a step back this year, as more teams have gotten physical with him, but he is still averaging near double-figures and has been a factor under the basket.

Joining Fulkerson in the post, though, is Pons. Again, when Pons arrived, he barely saw the court, playing only five minutes a game in 2017-2018. The next year, he averaged just under 12 minutes a game but gained valuable experience early due to Turner being injured.

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Still, through two years with Tennessee basketball, Pons was shooting under 50 percent from the free throw line and an offensive liability. That and his lack of control limited the value he was able to provide when he came into the game on defense.

Then, after Williams, Alexander and Schofield left, he had to join Fulkerson to pick up the slack in the post. In 2019-2020, he averaged just under 10 points a game, improved his free throw shooting to 63.8 percent and shot 35 percent from three. Meanwhile, he earned SEC Defensive Player of the Year after averaging two and a half blocks a game.

Over the summer, Pons tested the NBA Draft waters but decided to return for his senior season. This year, he is shooting nearly 79 percent from the free throw line and is down from one and a half to just one turnover a game. His improvements in control and efficiency have been dramatic.

There have been times this year in which Pons and Fulkerson have frustrated Vol fans with some of their struggles. They have had to adjust their game given the elite freshman guards who are part of the team now.

However, they both developed dramatically in their four years with Tennessee basketball, and their play during that time shows just how great of a coach Barnes can be at shoring up players’ weaknesses. Fulkerson became a scoring machine when he was just a body, and Pons became a solid free throw shooter.