Josiah-Jordan James has quietly become 'the most important guy' for No. 17 Tennessee

Dalton Knecht carried Tennessee at Michigan State and Wisconsin, scoring a combined 52 points in the exhibition win in East Lansing and at the Kohl Center in Madison in the second game of the season. All he did at North Carolina last week was score 37 points.

That’s what made Rod Clark’s words carry so much weight on Friday afternoon. It’s not Knecht, the Northern Colorado transfer wing and instant star with the Vols, that has been the biggest piece of the puzzle so far this season. 

Instead, that honor goes to fifty-year senior Josiah-Jordan James. 

“Josiah has, I think, been the most important guy for our team this year, honestly,” Clark said Friday afternoon before practice at Pratt Pavilion, as No. 17 Tennessee (5-3) prepared to host No. 20 Illinois (7-1) on Saturday (Noon Eastern Time, CBS) at a sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena.

The jam-packed stat line for James through eight games backup Clark’s claim. He leads the Vols in minutes (31.0 per game), 3-point shooting (42.9%) and steals (15). He’s second in scoring (11.4), second in rebounding (6.6), fourth in blocks (4) and fifth in assists (13). 

In short, he’s off to the best start of his collegiate career. And Clark knows the reasons why. 

“Number one, health,” he said. “Jo has been healthy.”

James spent the offseason leading up to his senior year dealing with a knee issue that sidelined him during the preseason and at times during the regular season, missing nine games while also dealing with an ankle injury. 

Rick Barnes: ‘Jo has been around a long time and he understands the game’

James has been around, too. He left Tennessee to train for the NBA Draft back in the spring, before ultimately deciding to return for the Vols for a fifth season, rejoining the program initially as a walk-on before going back on scholarship after the departure of Harvard transfer Chris Ledlum.

“He’s been extremely motivated, which has been great,” Clark said. “Jo is an older guy, so it’s a lot of comfortability he has on the floor, and it’s a lot of, you know, he doesn’t have any insecurities with his game because he kind of knows who he is. But it has been amazing to watch him, man.”

There’s certainly been no reason to be insecure this season. 

James has 35 points over his last two games, going a combined 14-for-20 from the field and 3-for-7 from the 3-point line. He had 15 against Syracuse in the first round of the Maui Invitational and 14 in the win at Wisconsin on November 10.

“I think he’s shooting like two less threes (per game) than he averaged last year,” Clark said. “And he’s making about the same amount.”

Again, the numbers check out. 

James averaged 1.7 made 3-point field goals per game last season on 5.3 attempts. He’s averaging 1.5 3-pointers this season on just 3.5 attempts. His 42.9% from three is his best clip since shooting 36.7% as a freshman on just 2.9 attempts per game. 

Rick Barnes on Tuesday pointed to age being the biggest factor for James, too.

“I think maturity,” Barnes said after Tennessee’s 87-66 win over George Mason. “Jo has been around a long time and he understands the game and he understands what we’re trying to do.”

No. 17 Tennessee vs. No. 20 Illinois, Saturday, Noon ET, CBS

His experience doesn’t always work in his favor. When he scored only seven total points in 68 minutes against Purdue and Kansas in Hawaii, Barnes blamed it on fatigue, playing three games in three days and putting too many minutes on his plate.  

He bounced back with 20 points in the loss at North Carolina, shooting 8-for-11 from the field and 2-for-4 from the 3-point line, with five rebounds and a pair of blocks in 38 minutes.

“I thought North Carolina,” Barnes said, “(he) was the one guy that carried that over and really played too many minutes, but he still fought through it. He just gives us a different dimension.”

Barnes had a word to describe that dimension.  

“I look at him and when he is really playing his best basketball offensively, I would call him a connector,” Barnes said. “He connects the offense. Again, you would expect it with his experience that he knows when to shoot it. He knows the flow of the game. He knows if he has an advantage where he can get down inside.”

James knows what he can do. He knows what his teammates around him can do. And everyone watching is seeing it, too.

“I think he is really starting to really see the court,” Barnes said, “in a way you would expect him as time goes on. I think the game has slowed down for him a lot offensively. A lot of guys out there can only see two or three things. 

“When you get a guy that can see 10 guys, eight, nine guys, those guys can really connect the whole offense together. I do think Josiah is starting to see the court in a great way.”