As he stood there with his eyes wide and his jersey in his mouth, Josh Richardson knew that it had all come to an end.
After picking up his fifth foul attempting to snag a game-changing steal from Arkansas’ Michael Qualls with 34 seconds remaining, the senior guard spent the final moments of his collegiate career reminiscing about his Tennessee tenure on the bench.
“My brain was going really fast,” Richardson said. “Just knowing that it was over was kind of weird.
“I was just thinking about this year and last year and how both years we got the most out of ourselves.”
But as he rose to his feet and hugged all his teammates as they walked off the court following the final buzzer, there were no tears.
Instead, there was a bunch of smiles and a sense of pride.
“It took a minute for it all to come to me,” Richardson said, “but just against all the circumstances we were under and all the doubters this year, the way we fought made me proud.”
And for good reason.
Not only had the Volunteers nearly erased a 20-point halftime deficit to almost pull off their second comeback victory in as many days, but they had also finished where nobody expected them to.
Picked to finish as low as 13th in the SEC, Tennessee kicked off conference play going 4-1. While they ultimately finished with a 7-11 conference record, they still finished 10th in the league.
The road to 10th place, however, came with its ups and downs.
With a roster consisting of eight newcomers — eventually trimmed down to seven after Dominic Woodson’s departure on Dec. 12, 2014 — the Vols defeated NCAA tournament teams in Texas Southern, Butler, Arkansas and LSU. That same roster, though, put together a 1-7 record in the month of February, leaving their post-season hopes hanging in the balance.
“There will probably be no postseason unless it happened to be the NIT and if we’re still in the mix there or not.
“The other two (CBI and CIT) would be up for discussion, although I would lean towards saying we probably would not play in either of those.”
Through it all, though, Richardson stood as the beacon for his team.
The Edmond, Oklahoma native led the Vols in points (16 per game), assists (3.6 per game), steals (2.9 per game) and free-throw percentage (79.8 percent) on his way to being selected to the coaches All-SEC first team, while also being Tennessee’s senior leader on and off the court.
Now, Tennessee is tasked with replacing the engine that kept them going, much like it did before this season when they had to recover from the departures of Jordan McRae, Jarnell Stokes, Jeronne Maymon and Antonio Barton.
Just as it did for Richardson this year, the onus of shouldering that transition falls on Armani Moore, Robert Hubbs and Kevin Punter.
With that group leading the charge, the departing senior, who leaves UT ranked 28th all-time in career points with 1,252, thinks the Vols will be just fine.
“I think the program is heading in the right direction,” Richardson said. “They’ve got some pieces that if they make the right strides, they can be alright next year.”
Richardson may not be a part of that future, but if success is a part of it, the Vols will have him to thank for a lot of it.
