Jahmai Mashack excited to return to west coast against Arizona

A Top 10 non-conference matchup with Arizona is plenty of reason to get excited, but for Tennessee guard Jahmai Mashack, there’s even more reason to be fired up for Saturday night.

Mashack is a California native and will be back near the west coast and playing in front of plenty of family. And beating the Bearcats would give Mashack some bragging rights over his older brother, Kwesi, who played football at Arizona.

“I think the biggest thing for me was my brother played there. He played football at the University of Arizona. So I went to plenty of games, went out to Tucson a lot. It’s definitely going to be exciting, just to go back to the west coast, see a lot my family traveling in for the game. I can’t wait,” Mashack said.

Mashack shared that his brother didn’t try to sway him to go to Arizona, either. As a matter of fact, it was his brother that pushed Mashack to go to Tennessee and play for head coach Rick Barnes.

“He definitely let me know what was the best decision for me,” Mashack said. “He was actually wanting me to come here, even though he did go to Arizona. He always rides for his team, but he definitely wanted what was best for me.”

Mashack also discussed prepping for the Arizona offense

“It is going to be tough. They’re a really good team, but we treat every team the same. We have to come in with the same mindset every game because if we don’t, that’s just going to lead up to not enough balance on the offensive end and the defensive end,” Mashack said Thursday. “So just going into the game knowing that we have to treat every team that same, I think that’s the mindset that we have coming into this one.”

Arizona averages a NCAA-high 92 points per game. They’ve surpassed the century mark on three occasions this year, and they’re coming off a win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi that saw the Wildcats put up 99 points on the Islanders. Still, they haven’t faced a defense like Tennessee’s.

That defensive effort has been on full display all season long. There have been only two teams this season, Colorado and USC, who have scored more than 60 points on the Vols. They’ve held their last five opponents, including ranked Kansas and Maryland teams, to under 53 points, too.

“I think that just in in our DNA, honestly,” Mashack said. “You can’t play for coach [Rick] Barnes without playing defense. I think everybody knows that. I think that was big for us. Just knowing that regardless of who is on the floor, we have to bring that energy. We can’t have a drop-off because that is what we are known for. It also helps that everybody on the team loves to do it. We get energy from having defensive stops.”