Nate Ament came into the season with top-five buzz surrounding his name, and while that hype cooled off early, the Tennessee freshman is heating up at just the right time. After a slow start that had scouts recalibrating their big boards, Ament is now reminding everyone why he was so highly regarded in the first place - and doing it against serious competition.
Last week, Ament dropped 28 points in a win over Ole Miss and followed it up with 29 more in a hard-fought loss to Kentucky. That wasn’t a one-off hot streak - it’s part of a larger breakout that’s been brewing since mid-January.
Through his first 16 games, Ament scored 20 or more just once. In his last seven?
He’s hit that mark five times.
During that stretch, he’s averaging 23.9 points per game, getting to the line nearly 10 times a night, and suddenly looking like a knockdown shooter - hitting 13 of his last 26 from beyond the arc. That’s a major leap for a player who struggled to find his range early in the season.
And it’s not like he’s doing this against mid-majors in buy games. Six of those seven opponents were ranked in KenPom’s top 50, which makes this surge even more impressive.
The numbers are starting to catch up to the eye test. Ament’s PER sits at 21.0, and his Box Plus-Minus (BPM) is a strong 8.3 - both solid marks for a freshman wing in the SEC. On Monday, he was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the fifth time this season, a nod to the consistency he’s starting to show.
At 6-foot-10 and a listed 207 pounds, Ament brings a rare blend of size and skill to the wing. His smooth handle and confident shooting stroke give him the tools to function as a modern three, despite his height.
Physically, he draws comparisons to Zaccharie Risacher - the No. 1 pick in 2024 - though Ament doesn’t quite have the same twitch or burst. He’s not going to blow by defenders with his first step, and at times he settles for tough mid-range jumpers when the lane closes off.
That said, his recent play shows signs of physical growth. He looks stronger, more willing to absorb contact, and more capable of finishing through it.
One play against Kentucky stood out - Ament scooped up a loose ball, powered through a crowd, and finished an and-1 through contact. That’s the kind of play he simply wasn’t making two months ago.
Still, there are areas where his game needs to tighten up. His assist-to-turnover ratio is slightly underwater - 2.5 assists to 2.6 turnovers - and his feel as a playmaker is still developing.
He can make the right pass, but he’s not always quick to recognize when and where to make it. Against pressure, he can be a beat slow, letting double teams trap him instead of escaping or punishing them with a sharp pass.
Defensively, the tools are there - length, size, and mobility - but the production hasn’t matched. He’s not generating many steals or blocks, and it was telling that he wasn’t on the floor for a key defensive possession late in the Kentucky game. He wasn’t in foul trouble, either, which raises questions about the coaching staff’s trust in his defense in crunch time.
Even so, it feels like the narrative around Ament may have dipped too far into the negative earlier this season. His recent play is a strong reminder of the upside that made him a projected top-five pick in the first place. He’s not just putting up numbers - he’s doing it against top-tier competition, and he’s doing it in a way that translates to the next level.
The top of the 2026 draft class is crowded, especially with breakout freshmen like Keaton Wagler and Kingston Flemings making serious noise. Ament may not claw his way back into the top five. But with his size, shooting touch, and offensive versatility, he still profiles as a lottery-level talent - and one who’s trending in the right direction at the right time.