When Bishop Boswell picked up two early fouls just minutes into Tennessee’s road clash at Alabama, most folks familiar with Rick Barnes’ coaching tendencies probably assumed the sophomore guard was headed for a long stint on the bench. That’s typically how Barnes plays it-two fouls in the first half usually means a player won’t see the floor again until after halftime.
But this time, Barnes went against the grain. And it paid off.
With 9:13 still left in the first half, Boswell checked back into the game. It was a calculated risk, one that stemmed from more than just gut instinct.
Tennessee had struggled in recent games when key players were sidelined early with foul trouble. Against Florida, Boswell sat the final minutes of the first half with two fouls, and the Gators took full advantage, building a double-digit lead.
A similar story played out in the loss to Kentucky, where Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s absence allowed the Wildcats to chip away at a Tennessee lead.
Barnes knew something had to change. So, in a tough road environment against a ranked Alabama squad, he let Boswell play through it.
“I just felt like he’s smart enough and he knows that we need him,” Barnes said after the win. “We needed to do it based on what we had done last week-how much time we’d spent trying to get some cohesiveness.”
Boswell didn’t just reward that trust-he seized the moment.
With Tennessee’s offense stalling in the first half, Boswell delivered a personal 7-0 run that helped steady the Vols. From the 6:20 to 4:27 mark, he knocked down back-to-back midrange jumpers, then drained a three to cap off the stretch. It was a spark Tennessee desperately needed.
“You have to have confidence in him,” Barnes said. “Those minutes were huge.
He came in and went on a stretch where he scored, what, five or seven points? Those were big minutes.”
Gillespie echoed that sentiment, noting just how critical Boswell’s scoring burst was at that point in the game.
“That was super important,” Gillespie said. “There was obviously something that made Rick change his mind, and it was a good thing that he did.
That seven-point stretch? That was really important because we weren’t clicking on offense at that point.”
Boswell’s impact didn’t stop there. He finished the game with four fouls-but crucially, he never picked up the fifth. That discipline allowed him to stay on the floor for 14 second-half minutes, where he became Tennessee’s most effective defender on Alabama’s standout point guard, Labaron Philon.
It wasn’t flashy, but it was gritty. Boswell’s defensive energy was contagious, and his presence helped set the tone for a Tennessee team that needed every ounce of toughness to pull off a 79-73 win on the road.
“He’s such a tenacious defender,” freshman forward Nate Ament said. “I feed off his energy when he’s in the game with me.
But he’s also just such a great leader. When I see him fighting his tail off, it makes me want to fight even harder for him because I know how much he goes through every day in practice.
How hard he works. To see him do what he does every day-and then hit a couple shots for us on offense too-it’s just inspiring.”
Boswell wrapped up the night with eight points, five rebounds, a steal, and a team-best plus-15 in the box score. But the numbers only tell part of the story. His poise with foul trouble, his timely scoring, and his defensive grit were all difference-makers in a game Tennessee had to have.
Barnes took a risk. Boswell made sure it was worth it.