It has been tough going for the Tennessee basketball fans in the last week, as the team received awful news about junior forward Cade Phillips, who is all set to miss the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury. However, one’s loss is another player’s gain, and injury to Phillips may pave the way for a couple of freshmen.

Forward DeWayne Brown II will suit up in their upcoming game against Louisville on Tuesday night. Coach Rick Barnes has also placed his trust in the freshman for his consistency in training sessions, who is all set to register his first start for the Tennessee Volunteers.

“He earned it. Just that’s it. He simply with his consistency he earned it,” Barnes said about Brown’s selection on Monday’s media availability. “And we’re going to base everything we do on everyday practice habits and consistency because that’s what we haven’t had.”

This will now mean that Tennessee may have two freshmen in its starting lineup on Tuesday. It is a fascinating development for Tennessee as they will get to see the young forward’s energy on the court. Brown will bring a different energy to this lineup, something that the team might need to shake off its losing streak.

The 6’8” forward is extremely physical and is averaging 5.5 points and 3.1 rebounds in 13.3 minutes at a whopping 66.7% shooting from the floor. However, Tuesday’s game against the Cardinals will be far from easy as they are a top-25 team with a great 9-1 record, including wins over quality teams like Arkansas, Kentucky, and Indiana.

Tennessee HC Rick Barnes urges his players to keep making progress despite the recent slump

This is Tennessee’s 11th year under coach Rick Barnes, and they started brilliantly with a 7-0 record, which includes an upset win over Houston. However, they recently ran into a slump, suffering three consecutive defeats, including losses against Kansas, Syracuse, and Illinois. So they will have an uphill task against Louisville on Tuesday.

“There’s a lot of things that we had to work on and keep working on and I do think that we have made some progress but we’ll see as we keep moving forward,” Barnes said when asked about progress in practice.

“I thought their attitudes were really good. We just broke down everything where we felt like we had to make the biggest jumps. Obviously, taking care of the ball is a big part of it defensively. Our ball screen coverage trying to clean that up with so many people doing that. Just overall as a group trying to get guys to understand, the roles, the details, just any and everything you could imagine.”

Overall, his players will be put to the test against an in-form team. Both teams have faced each other 22 times, with Louisville having the upper hand with a 12-9 record. However, last summer, the teams agreed on a home-and-home series, and Tennessee registered a dominant 77-55 humbling in November last year, which was only Pat Kelsey’s second regular-season game as Louisville head coach.

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With the odds stacked against them, it will be interesting to see how Tennessee and their young starting lineup manage against a strong Cardinals outfit. Rick Barnes hopes that his move of including Brown in the starting lineup will pay dividends with the Volunteers returning to winning ways.