Bishop Boswell spent 33 minutes on the court against Ole Miss on Tuesday.
Tennessee basketball’s glue guy stuffed the stat sheet, going for 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists in an 84-66 win. But that wasn’t enough for the sophomore guard.
He took to the court one more time — after the 45-minute postgame clock expired — getting shots up despite a marquee outing in his role. And there’s arguably not a bigger role player than what Bishop has done en route to the Vols’ four-game winning streak.
“When we recruited him, we needed him to do what he’s doing right now,” head coach Rick Barnes said.
The 6-foot-4, 204-pound guard averaged 3.8 minutes per night, dropping in a whopping 0.3 points per game as a freshman. His scoring efforts have not been atop his game since he arrived in Knoxville. An admittant Barnes said he did not come along as fast as he originally had planned.
But he kept working. Just like he continues to do after wins such as Tuesday’s.
Over the last four games, he’s averaged 9.5 points — drizzling in a filling 7.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.8 steals on 53% shooting from the field and 60% from beyond the arc. He’s played 32.3 minutes an outing, assuming occasional lead guard duties.
It’s the prominent role that Jahmai Mashack held. Mashack, the 59th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, made a living off being the connective piece of offenses with the likes of Dalton Knecht and Chaz Lanier. With Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Nate Ament around him, Boswell is feeding off the role he learned as a disciple of Mashack’s a season ago.
“No one worked harder than Bishop when the season was over with,” Barnes said. “I can’t imagine anybody in the country putting in more time than he does.”
Boswell’s interactive spirit ignites the rest of the team. On Tuesday, he took a hard elbow from Ole Miss’ James Scott. After a quick moment to recoup on the ground, he rose and buried a technical free throw after it had been upgraded to a flagrant foul.
To this point in the season, it’s a nightly thing for Boswell to be on the receiving end of a physical battle. That’s just the nature of his aggressive play style.
“He got like a magnet on his face or something,” Ament said. “He be getting hit in the face all the time. But that guy’s so tough, man. He’s so tenacious.”
It’s the kind of play that sparks his teammates. Ament has turned the corner since the Vols suffered a blowout loss at Florida in early January. He’s since gone on to average 23 points a night as the five-star tool he was recruited to be.
Iron sharpens iron, and there may not be a more precise tool in the country than the one suiting up in No. 3 each night.
“These past couple weeks, he’s been getting on me a lot, especially on the defensive end,” Ament said. “He challenged me every day in practice to get better. And someone like him is a big reason why you’re seeing me grow so much on the court right now.”
