UT Vols basketball: Jordan Bone turned NCAA tournament 'nightmare' into big offseason

Jordan Bone can’t remember how long the nightmare lasted.

But the Tennessee junior guard sure remembers when it started.

Catch. Dribble left. Two dribbles right. Seven steps. Jump stop. Jump shot. Buzzer, back iron and season over.

“It was a nightmare,” Bone said. “I couldn’t get it out of my head. It’s like the shot kept playing over and over and over and over again. I feel like, naturally, it’s so easy to be like, ‘Dang, why me? Why didn’t the shot go in?’

“It was tough getting past it. I’m not going to lie.”

The nightmare began on March 17 in Dallas, where Bone’s game-winning shot attempt clanged off the rim and the Vols lost to NCAA tournament darling Loyola-Chicago. Bone buried his face in his locker that evening, then tearfully talked through the end of Tennessee’s breakthrough season.

The Ramblers’ Clayton Custer hit a fortunate jumper over his defense. Bone took the inbounds pass and dribbled as far and as fast as he could. He got a decent look. It didn’t go in, leaving Bone with a pain unlike any he had felt before.

The following days and weeks remained difficult, then reality set in for Bone: He couldn’t get the game or the shot back.

“Realizing that allows you to move on and being real with yourself,” Bone said. “Move on and continue to get better and learn from it. It takes a sense of maturity.”

The Nashville native started looking ahead — only ahead toward a potentially great season for the Vols, who are regarded as one of the nation’s best teams.

The result was what UT coach Rick Barnes described Wednesday as a “great offseason” for his point guard.

“I just know he has come back and worked,” Barnes said. “You would expect it.”

Bone averaged 7.3 points last season, while leading UT with 124 assists and a 2.82 assist-to-turnover ratio — the second-best mark in program history.

The 6-foot-3 guard also improved his 3-point shooting from 30.4 percent as a freshman to 38 percent as a sophomore. Still, Barnes wants more offense from Bone, who he says is one of UT’s best shooters.

“He is still learning he can’t defer all the time and he needs to be aggressive,” Barnes said. “He needs to keep it pretty simple in terms of when he’s open. He’s a terrific shooter. When he gets himself in trouble is when he turns down shots to try to do something he doesn’t need to be doing.”

Bone handled his offseason accordingly. He worked on developing consistency in his play, focusing on applying pressure offensively and defensively.

But as much as Bone worked on the physical side of the game, he worked on his mental approach. He challenged himself — with an added push from teammates and coaches — to test his limits.

He believes he garnered a fortified mental game that can combine with almost 60 games played in two years to put “a guy who is more consistent in his play” on the court.

“I feel like time has a lot to do with it,” Bone said. “Just the way that you learn things over time when you are in a situation for so long. Freshman year I didn’t get it. Sophomore year I had spurts of understanding what was going on, but I didn’t fully get it.

“Now, I finally understand what is going on and what we are trying to do offensively and defensively and what we want as a group.”

Bone had some of his best flashes and moments of understanding late last season. He tore through the SEC Tournament with a dynamite showing against Arkansas and a 12-point effort against Kentucky.

He scored 13 in the loss against Loyola-Chicago with a handful of key plays that set up UT’s frantic comeback. The effort fell short, a gutting and lingering ending that turned into offseason fuel for Bone and the Vols to find a different finish this time around.

“You don’t forget things like that — it drives me and I know it drives our team,” Bone said. “We want more for this season than last year. Nothing is going to change in the way they are coaching us. Our mindsets aren’t changing. We are still a group of guys that want more for the team.

“We are just ready to take it to another level, which we know we can do by not being complacent and continuing to work.”

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