Grant Williams arrived at the University of Tennessee confident he was going to run circles around everyone. He claimed to be just 6-foot-4 and 280 lbs. in high school, but was beginning his college career at 6-foot-6 while trimming down to 265 lbs. So when he showed up to campus, he started talking trash to strength coach Garrett Medenwald that he was ready to outrun the team.



“I’m saying, ‘I’m in shape, you could put me at the power forward and I’ll take the ball and be able to run the court,’” Williams said. “I stepped on that scale the first day I was there and was 265 lbs., stepped in the Bod Pod which is a body fat calculator and I was 17 percent body fat. Next thing you know, I tried to play the four in practice and I almost — not passed out — but I almost fell over in the first 10 minutes of practice.”



Williams quickly realized he was in over his head and was about to face a rite of passage many...