ATLANTA — Former Tennessee basketball player Shembari Phillips is transferring to Georgia Tech and will join the Yellow Jackets’ program, head coach Josh Pastner announced Monday.
Phillips, a 6-3 guard from Atlanta, comes to Tech after playing two seasons for the Volunteers. He will sit out the 2017-18 season and has two years of eligibility remaining. Phillips appeared in 31 games and made 13 starts during his sophomore season at Tennessee, averaging 6.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 20.9 minutes per game. He played one of his better games of the season in a win over Georgia Tech on Dec. 3, scoring 14 points with seven assists and five rebounds, and finished the season with a 37.5-percent success rate from three-point range.
“Shembari will be a good addition to our program,” said Pastner. “He will be a veteran presence for us and help us ‘get old and stay old,’ which I think is key for us in the ACC. Sitting out a year will be an important part of his development, and based on some of the guys we will be losing to graduation, we will need him to step up for us right away.”
