Despite dealing with unfortunate late-season adversity, Tennessee finds itself in the March Madness Sweet Sixteen for the fourth consecutive college basketball season. The Volunteers continue to ride the hot hand of star guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie, but if a Final Four run is in their destiny, they need Bishop Boswell to show up in the next two weeks.
Boswell is not the player anybody thinks of when considering Tennessee, but the Volunteers need him now more than ever. Although they are not officially missing anybody from their rotation, Rick Barnes has not had his best player for weeks.
For most of the season, the Volunteers have gone as far as star freshman Nate Ament has taken them. Ament landed in Knoxville as the highest-rated recruit in Tennessee basketball history and immediately lived up to the hype, ending the season on the SEC All-Freshman team and as a second-team All-SEC forward.
Despite being an undersized power forward, Ament was Tennessee's leading scorer and rebounder for most of the regular season. However, everything changed in a home game against Alabama on Feb. 28, when Crimson Tide guard Latrell Wrightsell rolled up on Ament's leg, causing a nasty knee and leg injury.
The injury only wound up causing Ament two games, but he has not been the same since. Barnes already confirmed that his star freshman will not be 100 percent for the rest of the season as he continues to play through significant pain.
Without a healthy Ament, who is only averaging 11.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game while shooting 27.6 percent from the floor since the Alabama game, Tennessee has had no choice but to ask Gillespie to carry the entire offense. The senior has responded with authority, but if a Final Four run is in the Volunteers' future, they need Boswell to step up more than anyone else.
Tennessee needs Bishop Boswell to make the Final Four
With Ament running the show for most of the season, Tennessee has not been a great shooting team all year. They average just 6.6 three-pointers made per game, ranking 286th in the country.
Only two players, Ament and Gillespie, have taken more than 100 three-point attempts on the year, with neither hitting more than 35 percent of their shots from deep. Floor-spacing has been an issue for Barnes throughout the season without any consistent catch-and-shoot threat to complement his two leading scorers.
Aside from Gillespie, Bishop Boswell is the best shooter on Tennessee's roster. The sophomore's 39.4 percent three-point clip leads the team among players with 50 or more attempts.
Ament's leg injury has made it even more difficult for him to battle in the trenches and elevate on jump shots, further emphasizing Tennessee's struggling perimeter offense. Gillespie has found the range in March Madness, but the Volunteers would not have beaten Virginia without Boswell's season-high four three-pointers.
Tennessee not only needs Boswell as a shooter, but also as a playmaker. Gillespie has been the team's entire offense since Ament's injury, scoring or assisting on 45 percent of the team's made field goals in its last six games.
The Gillespie-dominant game plan had the Volunteers limping into March Madness with a 2-4 record in their last six games. They did not appear to be in good shape against Virginia's top-30 defense before Boswell stepped up with the game of his life, falling one assist shy of a double-double.
If Tennessee is going to upset Iowa State and Michigan to mount an improbable Final Four run, Boswell needs to continue creating offense. He has been an afterthought for most of the season, but Barnes and the entire Volunteer community need him to become the next March Madness star.
