Consistency is key.
It’s one thing for players to flash with a good performance several times over the course of a season. It’s another to find a way to sustain those strong showings, especially while filling some of the non-flashy roles associated with college basketball. For Jaylen Carey and Bishop Boswell, leading Tennessee basketball on the scoresheet is not at the top of the agenda night in and out.
This pair focuses on helping the Vols win in the other margins, the physical and defensive ones that more often than not reign supreme on a Rick Barnes’ Barnes-coached team. They helped Tennessee avenge a perennially hard-nosed Houston team during the Players Era Men’s Championship last week, a battle that’s only a taste of what it can take to carve deep into the NCAA Tournament.
It’s the exact reason Barnes sought out Carey from the transfer portal. Tennessee needed a harder edge.
“We know what Jaylen’s capable of doing,” Barnes said. “But, again, the word consistency, can he stay off the roller coaster? Can he just stay consistent? What we don’t want from any of these guys is you get on a roller coaster, you’re up, you’re down. All coaches are looking for consistency. What can we expect every single night? Can you give us that at a level that we need you to give it to us? And that’s where I think Jaylen is.”
The junior forward is plenty tall enough to ride, and he’s done so in the early parts of the new campaign. His minutes saw some fluctuation in the Vols’ opening couple of games, even falling lower in Barnes’ rotation after some poor practice effort before turning things around.
The Vanderbilt transfer hopes his best outings of the year don’t stay in Las Vegas. Carey got his highest volume of work in games against the Cougars and Kansas, racking up 17 rebounds and 24 points over the span. He’s found a knack for sharing the basketball as of late, tallying four against the Jayhawks. Maintaining the upward trajectory is the next step, with duels with Syracuse and Illinois on the horizon.
Boswell will be looking to do the same, but for the first time in his college career. He entered his sophomore season knowing he’d be stepping into larger shoes. After being buried in the rotation on a veteran-laden squad a year ago, the Charlotte, North Carolina, product is emerging as one of Tennessee’s stingiest defensive weapons. Some breakout showings on The Strip brought his behind-the-scenes efforts into the national eye.
“Bishop wants to be good,” Barnes said. “But this spring, after the season was over with, the time that he put into the gym, and even today, he’s probably put more time in than anybody. He’s watching film, doing this, doing that. And I just think it’s a great sign of him continuing to mature at the level that we need him to. It’s not always the most glamorous to buy into, but as he continues to be as consistent as he can in the role that he needs to play, there’s going to be some other things that will obviously start adding to his game on the offensive end.”
The 6-foot-4 guard logged a career-high 32 minutes against Houston, reaching 10 points on a perfect percentage from the field. He swiped three steals in each game out west, one of the few stat categories that show a player’s defensive impact.
Five assists against Rutgers gave way to a dominating defeat of the Scarlet Knights, a big step for Boswell’s offensive game that provides a huge boost for Tennessee’s effort on the scoreboard. His ability to lock down ball handlers on the perimeter garnered most of the spotlight, though.
“You go back to film and just show his effort and the things after games,” Barnes said. “Not just what he does on the ball, which I think most people look at, is what he does away from the ball too. I mean, to be a complete defensive guy, whether it’s finishing with a rebound, whatever it may be, making plays in the gaps.”
