Nashville, TN. – Tennessee’s Jahamai Mashack’s commitment to finding an opponent’s weakness is unrivaled are the hours he spends watching highlights of his future matchups are borderline obsessive.
He knows that’s what it takes to shut down his opponent like he did against Tre Johnson in Tennessee’s rematch with Texas at the SEC Tournament.
There’s no question when Texas won in double overtime in the second round of the SEC Tournament, that Mashack found some extra motivation ahead of their rematch.
The last time these two programs met, Mashack found himself in foul trouble and didn’t quite have an answer for the future SEC Freshman of the Year in Johnson who drained 26 points on Mashack and Tennessee.
The chance for a get-back game was more than enough fuel to get Mashack up for this game.
“As soon as he seen we were playing against Texas, he was like, angry,” said Tennessee’s point guard Zakai Zeigler. “When we came down for our pregame talk and his room was next to mine and he came out the door and he was like mad the whole time. He’s on edge right now. But when he’s playing like that, with a chip on his shoulder like he usually does, he’s scary.”
That passion was evident from the opening minutes of this quarterfinal match. The first sign he disrupted the Texas offense and he was walking off, shouting, and flexing his muscle.
That emotion only heightened after he came up with a deflection near midcourt, forcing the first turnover of the game. That ensuing play ended with a Volunteers basket.
This game for Mashack was about building his case as the National Defensive Player of the Year.
“This league is all about competitiveness and I’m going to compete regardless, but it’s also about respect,” said Mashack. “I want the respect to be the best defender in the country and I feel like I haven’t gotten that. So, I’ve got to prove it even more in this tournament and I will. That’s the goal of mine. That’s what I do and I take pride in that. Showing that emotion was just letting go of that and putting it out there.”
Despite the game-changing plays he’s made while at Tennessee, in a lot of aspects, his efforts fly under the radar and get coined as not showing up on the stat sheet.
Friday he was all over the stat sheet with 13 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal.
Part of how he’s been able to sharpen his skills is because he has a teammate that he’s battling right next to him in the back-to-back SEC Defensive Player of the Year, Zeigler.
While they work towards the same award and recognition, that only elevates their game.
“Oh, he makes me so much better,” exclaimed Zeigler. “I look at him and I know that we’re in a little bit of competition with each other. Sometimes when we play against good players I’ll be like, ‘Hey, let me guard him right here.’ and he’s like, ‘I got him.’ Sometimes we in competition like that, but it’s good competition. He makes me better, I make him better and I’m glad I’m on a team with someone like that.”
So, in the rematch against Johnson and Texas, Mashack helped to hold the freshman to just 11 points as compared to the 26 he had in the first meeting.
That drastic change in production is because of how obsessive Mashack becomes when he’s looking for an opponent’s weakness or pattern he can expose.
“I spent a lot of time looking at film, a lot of time looking at shot charts, knowing what hand he wants to go to, knowing what shots he likes to get to,” said Mashack. “So the plan was to put me on him and do what I do. Like I said, it sounds really confident but I am definitely confident in my abilities. So that was the game plan from the jump and I feel like I did a great job. But he’s a great player, he really is.”
To see the continued effort through the season and again in the quarterfinals remains just as impressive to Cade Phillips.
“He is as God-gifted as they get defensively, but more importantly his mindset,” said Phillip. “He comes into games so laser-focused, guarding the ball, and with what guys do. It just goes to him as a person and as a competitor. That’s who he is, that’s what he does. If you don’t see that as the National Defensive Player of the Year, then I don’t know what to do.”
