In the big win over Vanderbilt, Tennessee grinded it out, playing suffocating defense, controlling the glass, and knocking down timely shots when it mattered most.
The biggest shot of the night came when Nate Ament nailed a huge elbow jumper with less than a minute to go to give Tennessee the lead. Rick Barnes was fired up and gave Ament props for sticking with it even when it wasn't his best night.
“Well, I just told Mike Keith it reminded me of the old Meadowlark Lemon trick where he hid it in his shirt. I didn’t know where the ball was and all at once, it comes popping out of there," Barnes said. "He struggled, but they had a lot to do with that, obviously. And he made that one when it counted. He stayed with it. But I thought our second line was really good today. The guys coming off the bench, we got a lot of good on both ends of the court. Both ends, those guys were really helpful to us.”
Barnes is hilarious, dropping some old school Harlem Globetrotters knowledge on the folks. Barnes is right, though, as Ament drove down the lane but was forced to pick up his dribble about 15 feet away. While constantly playing keep away, pivoting around Ament eventually spun around, hitting a clutch jumper to give Tennessee a one-point lead with 54 seconds. I'm sure from Barnes' point of view, it looked like it may have disappeared for a moment, only to all of a sudden be floating in there towards the basket.
Pure 🧊 from Nate Ament pic.twitter.com/0v3TgFnALV
— gmannVOLS (@gmannVOLS) February 21, 2026
Nate Ament came up big once again
Sure, it was nowhere near his best game, but down the line when Tennessee needed a bucket most, AMent put the team on his back and hit a huge shot. The freshman is making a case to be a top-five pick in the NBA Draft in the summer. Since conference play began, Ament has elevated his game to another level. He’s adjusted to the speed and physicality of college basketball, transforming in just two months from a raw, high-upside prospect into a legitimate starter in the SEC. The rise of Ament is here, and the scary thing is, he can get even better.