Marquis Clark talking trash to get playing time with Tennessee basketball

Tennessee basketball freshman Marquis Clark wants to be annoying.

It's nothing personal. But as Clark sits behind a roster full of guards and ball-handling wings, he's trying to find ways to get on the court.

His solution? Talking trash. It's an old trick he and fellow Chicago native Dai Dai Ames have relied on during the Vols' summer practices.

"I'd say Dai Dai," Clark said on July 23 about who else talks the most trash. "We're from Chicago, so we like to talk stuff and get in people's head. That's what gets us going. Yesterday, Dai Dai was going at Miles (Rubin), talking smack to him. That's what we do."

Clark is a smaller, 6-foot-1 guard with a penchant for scoring. At Whitney M. Young High School, he broke the all-time scoring record with 1,983 career points, surpassing the previous record set by NBA first-round draft pick Quentin Richardson.

Scoring alone, though, won't get Clark on the floor on a Rick Barnes roster.

"Defense for sure," he said about where his game has developed most. "Being a pest, that's how I'm going to get on the court, so I've got to keep that up. I feel like that's been the best thing I've picked up."

Clark isn't the only player that has had to work on his defense. Barnes has had to teach his schemes to an almost entirely new group, a group that was specifically recruited for its scoring prowess.

"I think that guys have started to understand more and more what we're looking for, and way more defensively than anything," Barnes said. "What made it so difficult is that we had so many new guys. The only really active player from last year was DeWayne (Brown II), with Troy (Henderson) being out. In the past, our older players helped us with that guys came in. Every player we've recruited to come in here has had to come in and learn to do what we want to do."

Adjusting to Barnes, and college basketball, hasn't been easy for Clark. In one previous practice, he was punished to the Versaclimber, an intense cardio machine, between "six or seven" times, he recalled.

Clark has leaned on Brown and Henderson as the two returners from last season who also dealt with Barnes as freshmen.

"I've learned a lot," he said. "When I came in, I didn't really know what to expect. They were the first two guys I went to since they were here last year. I've definitely learned a lot, and I keep asking questions."

Clark is jostling with the other freshmen to be this season's Brown. Barnes said he thought about redshirting Brown last fall before the forward became the "biggest surprise" on the roster and quickly carved out a spot in the rotation.

Clark may be slotted behind other experienced guards like Ames, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

"We signed up to play against the best of the best," Clark said about the freshman class. "For all of us, we came in with the mindset that we want to get on the court, so we're going to compete against whoever."

Wynton Jackson covers high school sports for Knox News. Email:  [email protected]

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Marquis Clark talking trash to get playing time with Tennessee basketball

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