NCAA Basketball: 12 potential milestones to watch for 2021-22 season

John Fulkerson – Tennnessee

Milestone: 150 games played

Whether the 9.5 ppg and 5.5 rpg Fulkerson averaged during the 2020-21 season means he ‘got game’ is subjective, but the fact that he has played a lot of games cannot be argued. After five seasons with Tennessee, Fulkerson has appeared in 132 games wearing a Vols jersey and last April announced he would take advantage of the extra year of eligibility in order to return for a sixth season.

Games played is one of the easier milestones to reach for there is no requirement to score 20 points a game or get 10 rebounds, one simply needs to be good enough to be credited with a game played. The only thing that could – at worst- prevent the starting center from playing in 18 games is the surgery he had on his wrist in late June. The original recovery timeline from the surgery date of June, 25 was four to six weeks, which means even in the worst-case scenario Fulkerson returns for the start of the season.

Playing time is as much as a guarantee as getting into the game is Fulkerson. Last season the 6’9 center averaged over twenty-six minutes per game and his back-ups this season are: freshman Jonas Aidoo, seven-footer Uros Plasvic (4.4 mpg), and 6’8 Olivier Nkamhoua (1.1 ppg).

With a healed wrist and nobody challenging him for the starting job – let alone minutes – Fulkerson will not just reach 150 games played but it should be easy for Fulkerson to add three more game appearances and become the all-time games played leader in the SEC. As well, 25 games played this season would place him on top of the games played category in all of the NCAA.