“Dalton!” Rick Barnes barks suddenly in the middle of practice. “Go! If you don’t want to play, go see Garrett!”
The Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball coach is pointing toward Garrett Medenwald, his program’s director of sports performance. Medenwald immediately walks toward a VersaClimber machine located on the baseline in Pratt Pavilion, the school’s practice facility in Knoxville. Dalton Knecht—the would-be, could-be, ultimately must-be scoring savior for this Volunteers team—absorbs his chiding stoically and reports for a burst of cardio penance after a defensive lapse.
The VersaClimber is a climbing simulation machine that taxes the entire body. The Vols coach banishes players to use it for brief periods when their effort or focus fades. For Knecht, this is the first of two VersaClimber sentences during a recent two-hour practice. No other Volunteer does more than one.
Barnes was reinforcing a promise to the 6’6” wing player that he would coach him as hard as he’d ever been coached. That means calling him out for venial sins—an occasional flat-footed possession, a failure to get through a screen. That means holding him to a higher and harsher standard than some other Tennessee players. Which is fine with Knecht.
“I told Coach on our first Zoom meeting that I want to be coached really, really hard,” he says. “I want to be pushed every single day. I can’t thank Coach enough for that.”
This is a compact made between two men. Barnes, leader of one of the best defensive programs in college basketball, would teach Knecht how to guard. Knecht, owner of one of the most well-rounded offensive games in the sport, would supply Barnes with glaringly missing firepower. The one-year arrangement has played out like a dream so far—the Volunteers are ranked in the AP Top 10 and Knecht leads the Southeastern Conference in scoring—but the next two months are what matter most.
They needed each other—the decorated 69-year-old coach trying to make a late-career run at an elusive national championship, the talented 22-year-old mid-major transfer trying to complete an improbable rise to the NBA. They found each other. They are locked into this mission together. Knechted, if you will.