A little less than a month ago, Shembari Phillips sat firmly on the bench, rarely eclipsing 10 minutes of action.
Not long after that, the freshman guard had a conversation with Tennessee coach Rick Barnes and things started to change.
The end result, at least for now, was the freshman guard drawing his first career start and playing a career-high 31 minutes in the Vols’ 71-45 victory over Auburn inside Thompson-Boling Arena.
“The turning point happened when coach (Barnes) told me if things don’t change, things will change, and not for the better, for me at least,” Phillips said Tuesday. “I took it upon myself to just go hard every day and take advantage of every day.”
In a five-game span between UT’s contests against Georgia (Jan. 13) and Alabama (Jan. 26), Phillips played 32 minutes and recorded double-digit minutes just once versus Mississippi State on Jan. 16.
During that time, though, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound guard was putting in extra work to turn things around.
“I’m in the gym a lot more than I was,” Phillips said. “I’ve been waking up early and getting in there … I was very inconsistent with my effort, and as far as confidence goes, I just wasn’t very confident.”
Over the last three games, the early morning workouts have paid off.
Phillips played 17 minutes, scored six points and corralled five rebounds against TCU on Jan. 30. He followed that up with 13 minutes in the Vols’ comeback victory over then-No. 20 Kentucky.
Then, with Robert Hubbs III struggling against Arkansas, the junior guard played a season-low 16 minutes, Phillips tallied 23 minutes and scored 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting.
Three days later, Phillips became the ninth player to start for the Vols this season and did so because of “defensive purposes.” The move paid off as Auburn didn’t score in the first six minutes, eight seconds.
“I think he did his job on the defensive end,” Barnes said. “I think he realizes it’s probably harder to play that many minutes than he could ever imagine because he hasn’t had to do that and play the way we need him to on the defensive end.”
Phillips added: “It felt pretty good that he trusted me enough to take on that task. I’m just going to continue to get better at it. At the end of the day, it’s about effort.”
Phillips’ defensive improvement stems from the gym as well, matching up with senior guard Kevin Punter Jr., who averages 22.4 points a game, during practice.
“On the defensive end, guarding KP every day, it’s only making me better because KP is a lethal scorer,” Phillips said. “Now I know that it starts on defense. Climb into somebody, get some deflections and then I’ll let the offensive game come to me.”
For now, Phillips looks to be turning the corner and he’s hoping to parlay that into his sophomore season.
“Right now, me Admiral and Kyle as freshman are setting the culture right now of getting in the gym and working every day,” Phillips said. “When the freshman next year come in, they’ll come into that culture.”
