A portion of one of the more enticing freshman classes in Tennessee basketball history met with the media for the first time in their young college careers on Wednesday afternoon. 

Five-star standout Nate Ament and overseas product Clarence Massamba are still working to get settled in their new home, but come prepared to meet the high expectations of head coach Rick Barnes. After all, they knew what they were signing up for. 

Ament committed to the Vols back in April after earning Gatorade Virginia Player of the Year honors. He is just the third top-five recruit in Tennessee history, joining Tobias Harris and Allan Houston on the list. The 6-foot-9 forward opted for Tennessee over many other respected programs, including Duke and Kentucky.

“Initially, it was Coach Barnes and all the coaching staff,” Ament said. “I just have such a good rapport with all of them. “Knowing that Coach Barnes is the person who he is, who’s going to push you every day to be the best player you want to be. And me knowing that I have so much untapped potential, I have so much room to grow, I knew that he’d get the best out of me.”

His big, athletic frame is his calling card. Ament averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds during his high school senior season with Highland, leading his team to a state title. While being one of the top players in the country at the high school ranks is certainly a notch in his belt, the Manassas, Virginia, native is well aware of the jump he’ll have to make to be ready for SEC play come January. He’s already been exposed to how physical things can be in one of the toughest conferences in the land. 

“I’m still having my ‘welcome to Rocky Top’ moments,” Ament said. “One of them was probably Jaylen Carey. I tried to go for a dunk on him and he put me on my butt.”

The mental side of Ament’s game is not something that has gone unnoticed by his coaches in the short time he’s been on campus since June.​​ The basketball awareness that the 18-year-old possesses, tied in with his curiosity and desire to get better in practice, fits the mold that Barnes and his staff demand from players.

“He’s an impressive young man,” associate head coach Justin Gainey said. “I think the biggest things that impress me is how cerebral, how smart he is, how quickly he picks things up, and how inquisitive he is. He asks a lot of questions. He’s very humble, not a braggadocious, not a rah-rah-in-your-face type of guy. But I knew that as we recruited him, and that’s why we felt like he’d be a great fit here for us.”

Arriving on campus this past weekend, Massamba joins the Vols by way of the LNB Espoirs League, a French league where the Paris native averaged 11.4 points on 45.9 percent shooting a year ago. 

The 6-foot-5 guard has spent extensive time on United States soil however, playing two seasons at The Rock School in Gainesville, Florida, before going back across the pond. His past time in SEC country played a part in his commitment to Tennessee. 

“I was kind of familiar because I was playing high school in Florida,” Massamba said. “So I was kind of introduced to the SEC conference. I knew enough, I’d say, about Tennessee basketball, so having an opportunity to play here would be a big thing for me.”

Despite his late arrival, the coaching staff is prepared to get Massamba on track in due time to integrate him into the systems on both sides of the ball.

“There’ll be film sessions, there’ll be individual workout sessions,” Gainey said. “It’s not emphasized as much on shooting technique but more so, ‘okay, here are offensive concepts. Here’s this play we’ve been working on this summer.’ It’ll be a challenge, it’ll be different for them, cause it is new terminology. You don’t know how that’ll play a part into it as well.”