Tennessee coach Rick Barnes recaps the Vols' 70-63 win against South Carolina Mike Wilson/News Sentinel
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina forward Justin Minaya started to answer a question about Derrick Walker on Saturday night. Then his voice trailed, with not much to say about the Tennessee freshman forward beyond “he played a pretty good game.”
It was an understandable reaction, as Walker hadn’t been a key player for the Vols like he was at Colonial Life Arena. And even Walker had to admit he didn’t think South Carolina players knew who he was going into the game.
“I don’t, sir,” Walker said. “But maybe after this game they will. Who knows.”
Walker scored a career-high 10 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting night in Tennessee’s 70-63 win at South Carolina. He also grabbed four rebounds in 25 minutes for the No. 21 Vols (13-5, 4-3 SEC).
The 6-foot-8 freshman chalked up his success to his teammates putting him in a position to succeed. Vols coach Rick Barnes said the change came from “realizing he has to get more serious about it.”
“Derrick has responded this week, in terms of what we need to do,” Barnes said. “And his teammates have told him, ‘We need you. We need you (to) come in and play physical for us, be a guy that can help us with some possessions.’”
More: No. 21 Tennessee basketball stays poised, holds off South Carolina late
That’s precisely what Tennessee got from Walker, as well as fellow freshman Yves Pons in a change to the frontcourt rotation. Both forwards played the most minutes of their careers, checking in early off the bench and stepping up in a tough road environment against a physical South Carolina team.
“We knew it was going to come from them,” sophomore forward Grant Williams said. “They are physical bunch. We knew it was just a matter of time.”
Walker has played in every game this season, averaging 7.6 minutes and 1.8 points per game. On Saturday, he scored on three straight Tennessee possessions late in the first half with South Carolina making a strong push to take a halftime lead.
He started with a layup, then showed an impressive post move before he threw down a big one-handed dunk on a pick-and-roll with Lamonte Turner to keep the Vols ahead.
“It was just getting a feel for the game,” Walker said. “It was very physical. I’m a big body, so I love physical games. My teammates just set me up to look amazing. They are great people.”
But it wasn’t only Walker making his biggest impact of the season. Pons cracked the rotation for the first time since he played one minute on Dec. 23 at Wake Forest, giving the Gamecocks a new look off the bench in the frontcourt.
“It adds such a dynamic because our bench can come in and score and our starting lineup is going to keep wearing you out,” Williams said. “It adds a whole different variation to our team.”
Barnes said Friday that Pons was getting “closer and closer” to the point that he had to play the freshman. A day later, the forward from France played 12 minutes after playing 18 minutes all season.
Barnes again praised Pons’ work ethic on Saturday – “there’s nobody in our program that works harder,” he said – and that work came to fruition in recent days.
“This week, for some reason, you could just see it start to click for him,” Barnes said. “It started to click. I thought you could just see it starting to happen.”
The 6-foot-5 forward scored on an offensive rebound and dunk in the second half. He finished his night with two points, two rebounds and a block.
Combined, the freshman forward duo played 37 crucial minutes on Saturday and showed promise of being the players who Barnes believes can help the Vols moving forward.
“It gives us a chance to be more physical,” Barnes said. “We need that because this league is a tough, hard-nosed league.”