Multiple interviews conducted at Tennessee basketball's preseason media day uncovered an interesting trio that's proved tough to beat in pickup games.
Several players said anytime freshman walk-on point guard Braxton Bonds, freshman forward Willie Carmichael and junior wing Armani Moore are on the same team, that team never loses.
Bonds, the nephew of former Major League Baseball star Barry Bonds, said Carmichael a 6-foot-8 big man from Florida is a huge part of the reason for that.
"If you're on Willie Carmichael's team, you will not lose in a pickup game. Let's just start with that," Bonds said. "That man is an animal. I mean, Armani's an animal, too, but Willie gets every single rebound. He's one of those guys that's just fun to play with pick-and-rolls, runs, whatever. He makes the game so much fun."
Bonds said his competitiveness comes from mostly from two sources his bloodline and his high school coach, Drew Maddux of Nashville's Christ Presbyterian Academy.
"He just instilled hard work and competing every single day into me," Bonds said. "When I was younger [in high school], there were older people who had my spot, and I knew that I was talented but had to work to get my spot. I've just kept that mentality.
Bonds, who took a couple of classes this summer at NCAA Division I program Liberty as a scholarship player before transferring to Tennessee as a walk-on, has been a surprise gem for the point-guard-deficient Vols but might not be eligible to play this season. First-year Tennessee coach Donnie Tyndall said Thursday that Bonds should be two to four weeks away from learning the outcome of his immediate-eligibility waiver request from the NCAA.
Carmichael, an under-the-radar prospect who initially signed to play for Tyndall at Southern Miss before following the coach to Tennessee, said he didn't even start playing basketball until he suddenly grew six inches as a high school freshman and friends convinced him to try out for the hoops team. Until that point he'd been a promising track and field sprinter something that still shows up when he routinely beats everyone on Tennessee's team (including the guards) in up-and-back sprints.
"He's got that track form," Moore said with a smile. "It ain't fair. You can tell he knows how to run."
The big freshman looks nothing like a sprinter in the paint, though, where his relentless competitiveness makes him a tough assignment for anyone. His coaches absolutely love him for it, and so does his teammates
most of the time, anyway.
Im just a hard worker, said Carmichael, who has added more than 20 pounds of muscle since arriving in Knoxville this summer. If Im sick, I still work. If Im hurt, I still work. It doesnt matter how I feel, Im gonna work hard and try to make my teammates better and try to get myself better every day. Its just instinct, I guess. I dont really know how to go slow.
Why be out here if you dont want to be the best you can be? Im that way with everything I do in life, basically.
Moores contribution to his pickup team has been about what most who have seen him play would suspect. The muscular, 6-foot-5 wing can play and defend all five spots on the floor and is every bit as tenacious as Carmichael on the block which is why Tyndall doesnt hesitate to call Moore the best post defender on the team, despite the juniors lack of height.
Im just really competitive, and I really dont like losing, Moore said. I mean, with me, its not about going out there and trying to be the toughest guy. But thats just how I play because I hate losing. I mean, I really, really, really hate losing, so all I care about is doing whatever I need to do and whatever my coaches and teammates need to me to do for us to win games. Thats all I care about.