Rick Barnes: Tennessee freshman DJ Jefferson 'just getting started in this game'
When Rick Barnes was asked last week about Tennessee freshman wing DJ Jefferson, the two words he came up with were “great” and “awesome.” That’s how Jefferson handled his redshirt season on the sideline with the Vols.
“He was great,” Barnes said during Tennessee’s Big Orange Caravan stop in Knoxville on Thursday. “DJ has been awesome.”
And the best part?
“He is just getting started in this game,” Barnes said.
DJ Jefferson as a recruit: 4-star SF, No. 51 overall, No. 17 SF
Jefferson, the 6-foot-5, 207-pounder out of Richardson, Texas, was a consensus four-star prospect, ranked No. 51 overall in the 2022 class according to the On3 rankings. He was the No. 17 small forward in the country and the No. 1 player in Minnesota, where he attended Minnesota Prep Academy.
The problem in his first season at Tennessee, though, was being stuck behind senior Josiah-Jordan James and freshman Julian Phillips on the wing. There was an ankle injury in October, too, that limited Jefferson during preseason practice and left Barnes with the decision to go with the redshirt.
“When I first got here,” Jefferson told Volquest last month, “and I was told I was going to be a redshirt, of course I had some thoughts in my mind, like man I wish I could play. But I had to let it play its course.
“I knew it was a great thing for me because I didn’t want to end up having a wasted year. When they did tell me I was going to redshirt, I just took that as another opportunity to get better as a player and as a person.”
Jefferson, despite not playing at any point in the season, became known for his high-flying dunks during pregame layup lines at Thompson-Boling Arena. Barnes said on Thursday they knew the starting point for Jefferson would be his “terrific athletic ability.”
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But there’s more to it.
“He is skilled,” Barnes said. “There are so many other parts of the game that all players not just him have to learn.”
Rick Barnes: ‘You could see (Jefferson) starting to turn the corner’
The learning started to show late in the season.
“His progress really the last month and a half of the season, you could see him starting to turn the corner,” Barnes said. “You could see it starting to come together for him. As he continues to mature like all these guys, we believe in this group of guys.”
The group will have a lot of new faces next season, with Jefferson and fellow redshirt freshman guard Freddie Dilione set to join the rotation. Senior guard Santiago Vescovi will be back for a fifth season and will be joined by transfer shooting guard Jordan Gainey, transfer forward Chris Ledlum and transfer wing Dalton Knecht.
The Vols will need all of them, Barnes said.
“We also know that a lot of things happened this year (with injuries) that we couldn’t have possibly thought that could have happened,” he said. “That is why it is so important that every one of these guys know how important they are and how much we are going to need them. They have to be ready when their number is called.”
