Grant Williams' next step for Vols basketball? Elite conditioning, Rick Barnes says

In the moments after Tennessee basketball’s season came to a screeching halt, Grant Williams fielded a question about whether this year for the Vols was a sign of what is to come in Knoxville.

But instead of talking about all the good Tennessee accomplished, the sophomore forward jumped into a response about the need to improve and grow this offseason.

“Guys can improve in a lot of areas, myself included,” Williams said after UT dropped to Loyola Chicago in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

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Williams put together a big sophomore season after a nice debut season in 2016-17. He claimed a boatload of postseason honors, highlighted by the SEC player of the year award from the league’s coaches.

He also was a unanimous first-team All-SEC selection by the media, then landed on The Associated Press All-America honorable mention list Tuesday.

But Vols coach Rick Barnes believes the biggest and hardest jump comes between a player’s sophomore and junior season. He said Monday that after two years on campus, a player has learned to develop a work ethic and then it boils down how much passion and desire they have to continue to improve.

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“Now that they’ve been through it, it’s a harder step to make from sophomore year to junior year and junior year to that senior year,” Barnes said. “It gets down that individual passion and commitment to it.”

Barnes saw that junior jump last season from both Kyle Alexander and Admiral Schofield, which led to Schofield's decision to enter the NBA Draft early without signing an agent.

Now, it's Williams' turn to make a leap, which could be even more important if Schofield ultimately opts to keep his name in the draft.

Barnes said Williams' biggest improvement between his second and third campaign needs to start with better conditioning.

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“I think that’s a major part of what he needs to do,” Barnes said. “He obviously needs to continue to work on his skill and consistency, but I don’t think there’s any question that he’s got to get himself in high-level conditioning. He needs that more than anything. If he does that, it’ll help him in a lot of areas. It will help him be able to guard the ball better on the perimeter. It will allow him to play longer harder. It will allow him to rebound more consistently.

“Conditioning is a big part of everybody’s game, but he needs to get himself to a very high level.”

Williams averaged a team-high 28.8 minutes as a sophomore. He played at least 30 minutes in 17 of Tennessee’s 35 games, including a stretch of eight straight games with 30 or more minutes to open SEC play.

He also did much of it while battling a lingering back and hip issue, which Barnes said Monday that Williams “had to deal with a lot.”

He played through it, averaging 15.2 points and 6.0 rebounds in the award-filled year. But after UT’s final game, its standout forward bemoaned his defensive performance and said he felt like he hurt his team.

“Being an elite defender,” Williams said is his most necessary improvement. “Can’t have guys go at me consistently. That’s on the scouting report. That and expanding what I do well now and being consistent.”

Barnes criticized Williams late in the season after a loss to Georgia in which he totaled only five points and four rebounds. He particularly was bothered by a lack of rebounding in a few previous games, as well as the sophomore not playing defense within UT’s scheme.

Williams responded in a major way the next game, taking over Tennessee’s 62-57 win against Florida with 23 points and six rebounds. He then carried that showing over into postseason play in Tennessee’s run to the SEC tournament title game and the second round of the NCAA tournament.

But as Williams heads into a key offseason, he wants to avoid that lull that left Barnes lambasting his play in mid-February. Next year, he wants to stay steady from start to finish as a go-to player, rebounder and defender.

“Some things that I got back to at the end of the year, I didn’t do the entire year,” Williams said. “I’ve got to do a better job of that and being a leader.”