Meet the Tennessee transfer that helped the Vols secure a bounce-back win against Texas
Knoxville, Tenn. – Tennessee basketball’s Darlinstone Dubar’s performance against Texas had the same feeling as unlocking a new character in a video game.
Jawing with the crowd, his explosive putback dunk, and calling his own shots. It’s a side Vols Fans haven’t truly seen, until game 16.
Let’s get to know D-Stone.
It’s always a captivating discovery when the player who plays with such force and explosiveness on the court ends up being shy.
Well, that’s Darlinstone Dubar.
That shyness we saw in the preseason is still there, but maybe the side his teammates see is starting to make an appearance around the media.
Earlier in the season I had the chance to talk with D-Stone one-on-one, there I learned he’s named after his dad’s late best friend.
Some of the characteristics D-Stone’s dad saw in his friend, seem to be present in D-Stone.
“I am always there. I always, I try to be there for people all the time. I’m a good guy. I’m just, just nice,” said Dubar.
Many qualities he no doubt adds to the team and together led him to describe his time at Tennessee and the brotherhood they forged almost instantaneously as an unbelievable experience.
“We’ve been working very hard, great, great group of guys,” said Stone. “love my teammates. Whenever I’m down, you know, they’re there to make me laugh, or just, we just like to play around with each other, just have fun and just joke around. But it’s been an unbelievable experience, and I just been having a lot of fun.”
Now one could assume the fun slows down when practice begins and comes to a screeching halt when head coach Rick Barnes isn’t getting results at practice. Remember how he was following the Florida disaster?
Not every collegiate basketball player wants to be coached hard day in and day out, but every Tennessee basketball player does.
Barnes’ ability to push his players to their limits while building and maintaining a family-like culture is part of what makes him a Hall of Fame coach.
D-Stone loves that side of his head coach.
“Yeah, it just turns me on,” said Dubar. “It just makes me want to go harder. Whenever you just yelling at me or getting on me, it just makes me like, Oh yeah, I’m gonna show him, but he just wants the best for me.”
In the midst of missing several games because of personal matters and concussion protocol, he said the main thing he did to keep the confidence was remain positive and remind himself he’s built for this.
He got his opportunity against Illinois.
“Well, just being on the bench watching the game, I mean, it was fun. Crowd was loud. I just couldn’t wait to get out there. As soon as I heard my name, I was excited. Ran to the Scores Table and already knew it was game on,” said Stone during the postgame press conference.
He played 17 minutes and had 5 rebounds and 5 points.
A performance that led to another opportunity with big minutes. It came against Western Carolina. He was on the court for 17 minutes and added 13 points.
However, it was a game where his instincts and defensive effort shined the most for Barnes.
“He knows how to play in those type games,” said Barnes after the game. “He’s really good when they’re you know, when we’re just really trying to play, we’re not trying to run a lot of plays, trying to use our concepts. And he’s really good enough situation because he’s got a good feel. He obviously can shoot the ball. He we all know that, but I thought he really tried really hard defensively. I thought he was really locked in there. That’s the big thing we’ve been talking to him about, about trying to be more consistent on that end.”
Then he’d have a stretch of three games with no points accounted for, until Texas. Then the team absolutely needed a bounce-back game, he delivered.
One explosive bucket after the next, one explosive defensive effort after another.
That led to D-Stone expressing emotion like Vols Fans haven’t seen!
Shushing the crowd and jawing with fans, even calling his shots late in the game.
“As soon as Z gives it to me, I’m going to go take the lead,” recalled Dubar.
It gave Tennessee a lead it wouldn’t surrender to the Longhorns.
It’s his toughness that remains to be the difference maker and it’s what he can do on defense that’ll be the key to D-stone seeing more playing time.
“I feel like he bring in some, some type of more toughness to us that, you know, he might get some tough buckets inside here, hit some here, some big time, three tonight, you know,” said Zakai Zeigler aft the Texas game. “But it just makes us that much more and we know what he’s capable of. And I’m just glad that he went out there tonight and did his thing.”
Maybe this version of D-Stone should’ve been something we saw coming all along, because on day one he called Zeigler’s number and was like, “I’m guarding you!”
“The second day he came in, he was like, “Man, I’m guarding to you.” He was just talking trash to me the whole time. He’s trying to bump me around. We just try to go back and forth, but you know him just having that energy I know from day one on his visit that he’s gonna bring that type of vibe that type of energy, said Zeigler.
What keeps that energy for Dubar is keeping the main thing the main thing.
“You just got to keep the main thing the main thing. Tread water, carry water, every day is the same. There’s highs and lows and you just got to keep going and continuing to play hard and keep believing in yourself,” said Dubar.