Barnes praises Bowden's attitude ahead of Knoxville native's final games at Tennessee
Rick Barnes hardly remembers seeing Jordan Bowden without a smile on his face.
The rare exception would come after one of his many emphatic dunks from over the years, but those aren't the moments that stand out most to Bowden's coach.
It's the instances when the cameras aren't around and the recorders are bestowed away in reporters' desks that come to Barnes' mind when he thinks of No. 23. From the memorable dances to telling jokes in practice, the veteran coach cherishes it all.
"I've never seen him have a bad day as a person. To me he is as consistent a human being as I've ever been around," Barnes said. "Even when things aren't going well he hides it, he's one of the funniest guys around."
While Bowden is in the midst of perhaps the most difficult shooting season of his career, that hasn't stopped him from bringing his usual tenaciousness to the defensive end.
With Lamonte Turner's Tennessee career in the books, it's been Bowden that has often been matched up against the opposing team's best perimeter player.
Even when Turner was healthy, that was often the case, and for good reason. At 6-foot-5, 193 pounds, he provides length, size and lateral quickness on the wing that makes it difficult for the opposition to get by him or shoot over his outstretched arms.
Whenever Barnes needed a player to attack the trenches and do the "dirty work," it was always the local product that he turned to.
"His impact has been the roles that he's had to play. I say the dirty work, but he's been willing to do all the dirty work," Barnes said. "He's always been a guy that we thought he's going to be the matchup to guard the other teams' best player."
What many don't realize is that Bowden's Tennessee career almost never came.
Following his senior campaign at Carter High School, Bowden was not heavily recruited by Division 1 schools, leading him to venture out to Anderson, South Carolina where he spent time honing his skills at the 22 Feet Academy, a destination for post-prep school training.
Bowden's mother was beside herself at the thought of the Vols not focusing on a local product.
Turns out, after Barnes and his staff got an in-depth look at Bowden and were able to sit down with he and his family, they agreed.
"It's hard to believe now that he's a senior and I can still think of the day when we sat down with his Mom and Dad," Barnes said. "They wanted to know why we weren't recruiting him, and I'm just glad Steve Diggs made that connection for us."
Bowden's unselfishness and willingness to make the right basketball play may have cost him at times, but he never stepped outside of his comfort zone.
He was always capable of scoring 25 points on a game-to-game basis, but it has never been in his nature to be a selfish, shoot-first player, despite his knack for knocking down shots from the outside.
It's that aspect of his game and personality that Barnes will miss the most, and Bowden's positive attitude leaves an example for others to follow for years to come.
"I think if you ask the guys over time he could probably be voted the best teammate," Barnes said. "Because of the way he is every day with those guys and he's a very unselfish person."
