How freshman Cam Carr found his way to the floor at Rupp Arena
If you had bet that Tennessee freshman Cam Carr would play in the first half of the Vols 103-94 win Saturday night at Rupp Arena, you would have won a lot of money because no one saw that coming.
But Carr logged three minutes in the first half after Zakai Zeigler picked up his second foul. Carr’s stat line read; 0-1 from the field with a rebound, an assist and a personal foul.
It also should read ‘made good on a promise.’
Monday night on VolCalls head coach Rick Barnes recounted a story from last week and how Carr found himself with three minutes of playing time in the first half at hostile Rupp Arena.
“Cam Carr is really personally trying to get so much better on defense. We talked the other night after practice and he told me, he said ‘coach I think I’m ready to help’,” Barnes said. “I asked him how he was going to help us and he said I’m a better defensive player. I said well just to let you know I just watched tape of practice. Tomorrow we will watch it together. If you don’t retract what you just said, I won’t ever play you. He looked at it (tape) and Santi told him that he could be an outstanding defensive player. But look when I first got here, I couldn’t guard anybody. And until I could say that to myself and say I have to get better on defense, I couldn’t get better. That day at practice Cam really took it to a different level.
“So the day of the game (Saturday) I went up to him and I said Cam exactly what would happen if I put you in the game. What do you think would happen? And he looked at me dead serious and he said ‘coach I promise you this, I will get us an extra possession’ which I thought that’s a great answer. I told the coaches just because he answered that way I am going to find a way to get him in the game and you know what he did it.”
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The three minutes of work against the Wildcats was only his third time Carr has seen action against a power five opponent. Carr played a minute against Florida and a possession to forget at North Carolina.
But Barnes and his staff are high on Carr’s future in the program. He’s got length. He’s got athletic ability. He can be physical and Saturday night he did exactly what he told the coaches he would do which is how you earn trust for more opportunities.
“The pass he made to Josiah (Jordan James), I can’t teach that. No body teaches that,” Barnes said. “That was a big time play to pick that up and throw the perfect pass to him. Defensively he did a great job. They challenged him one on one. He cut a guy off the baseline. He got a rebound and made an effort to go get another one. He did exactly what he said he was going to do. If you get guys thinking like that as opposed to what he did at North Carolina when he went in and just said I gotta shoot it. Remember he was in there for a possession.”
Saturday night, Carr got a handful of possessions, possessions that could lead to more opportunities sooner rather than later.
