KNOXVILLE — Raise your hand if you saw Ryan Childress’s career heading down this path two years ago?

Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

Didn’t think so.

Childress, the Tennessee men’s basketball team’s lone senior, never got the opportunity to capitalize on his sterling performance as a sophomore in the 2007 NCAA tournament.

Injuries and coach Bruce Pearl’s successful frontcourt recruiting have left Childress a gameday afterthought this season. The knee he dislocated last spring still hasn’t 100 percent recovered, but his intensity hasn’t waned since he returned to practice in mid-January.

Pearl said he hopes to see a full house before tipoff in Thompson-Boling Arena, to give Childress — his first UT signee — the “appreciation he deserves.”

“Tennessee fans are always going to appreciate what Ryan Childress has meant to the program,” Pearl said Friday night. “He was my first recruit. He will graduate inside of four years as a Vol Scholar, and what’s his reputation? Hard-playing, overachieving, tough guy.

“He’s a great success story. He met (and married) a beautiful Tennessee girl, a real Southern belle. Us Northerners are lucky to be able to come down here in the South. Chill will tell you that. He’ll be the first to tell you.

“We probably don’t beat Virginia in the (2007) NCAA tournament, and we may not even be in the game against Ohio State without Ryan putting together back-to-back NCAA tournament games that I don’t want people to ever forget.

“And the last thing is this: Nobody has handled Ryan’s injury situation better than Ryan. He could have played for us this year at about mid-January at about 75 percent of what he was. But I just made the decision that even though he was a senior, 75 percent of Ryan wasn’t as good as 100 percent of Brian (Williams) and Emmanuel (Negedu). Ryan accepted that, and he’s provided good leadership, and he’ll join a rare group of Tennessee Vols who have been here four years, graduated and have been to four straight NCAA tournaments and won three conference division championships. How many guys have done that? Maybe he’s the first.”

Childress’s teammates showered him with similar praise.

Junior forward Tyler Smith — who took a bulk of Childress’s pre-injury playing time — said “Chill has been a behind-the-scenes leader for us.

“A lot of people don’t see him on the court, but in the locker room, he talks to guys,” Smith continued. “He talks to Scotty (Hopson) a lot. He even talks to me and tells me things, because he’s been with Coach Pearl for a while, and he’ll tell me just little things like that.”

Junior forward Wayne Chism said Childress is still a “very vocal leader.”

“He’s helping us out a lot, being very vocal and keeping everybody encouraged on the bench ... and staying together,” Chism added. “That’s what Ryan’s been doing for us, and he gives us a hard go in practice. That’s how Ryan is. He’s a hard-nosed guy who plays hard, and he tells you what he knows and doesn’t care what you think about it.

“He’s felt like he should have been out there several games when we were in foul trouble, but he just wasn’t the same because of his leg.”

Junior wing J.P. Prince said no one looks forward to banging with Childress, who added punch to the scout team.

“That’s never been Chill’s problem,” Prince said. “He’s just been a great leader, even through the injuries and stuff. He’s just not the same Chill he was last year and the year before, because he’s still working back from the knee injuries.”

Childress spoke with The Times Free Press on Friday night, discussing several topics on his past, present and future.

Here is an excerpt from that interview:

Q: What are you expecting to go through Sunday?

CHILDRESS: “You mean other than hit a bunch of 3s, like I just did? (Laughter).

Q: Yes. What are you expecting from the Senior Day festivities?

CHILDRESS: “I haven’t thought about it a whole lot. I’ve got a lot of friends and family coming down (from Cincinnati). I think it’s just going to be a nice time to go out there and have one last hurrah in front of the home crowd and everything. These fans have been awesome to me, and I just think it’s going to be a great experience for my family, my wife, my sister, and just have one last hurrah with the whole thing. It’s been a great experience.”

Q: Are you aware of any special plans for Sunday? Will you definitely play or be in the lineup?

CHILDRESS: “I have no clue. You just take the season as it comes. You never know what’s going to happen. I might get in. I might not. I’m getting in some shots, just in case I do get in, to make the best of my time and be prepared.

“But I think that’s what you have to do your whole career — just be prepared for anything — so we’ll see what happens.”

Q: Any memories that stand out from your UT career?

CHILDRESS: “I don’t know. I just try to enjoy all of it. I tried to enjoy the NCAA runs. I tried to enjoy games like Florida, when Dickie (Vitale) is here and stuff. I’ve enjoyed the ride. It’s been a dream come true for me. I don’t know if there’s any one moment. I’ve just had fun with the whole process.”

Q: What’s it been like for you, as a senior, seeing this team growing up throughout the year?

CHILDRESS: “You’ve just got to lead by example, because you don’t have a chance to really talk to them as much, because you’re not out there playing with them. So you don’t have as much weight in that area. You’ve just got to show them, through practicing with these guys and the scout team and stuff, what toughness is about. It’s about diving for a loose ball, taking a charge and battling hard — not talking smack and all that or all the extracurriculars, which I’ve done throughout my career, but I try to show them more of the right way to do things.

“I hope they just leave it out there on the floor, because you know no one can take it away from you if you play as hard as you can.”

Q: I know you’d rather be a bigger contributor, but what’s it been like to become a crowd favorite?

CHILDRESS: “I think it’s awesome. It’s like a dream come true. You come down here and you don’t know what to expect or anything like that. You get some things going, win some ballgames and, for whatever reason, the fans kind of took to me.

“I love this place. I married a girl from down here. I want to stay here in the area and work,and raise my family and stuff. I just think it’s been awesome, because these people have been behind my back — whether I’m playing, whether I’m not, whether I’m hurt or whether I’m doing great. Whatever it might be, they find a reason to still cheer for me, and I really do appreciate that. They’ve been everything to me.”

Q: Do you feel like you might follow former teammate Dane Bradshaw’s footsteps, using your popularity from UT to succeed in the business community?

CHILDRESS: “I think that’s all I’m trying to do. I say sales, but really, at the end of the day, I’ve met a lot of good people here and I want to see what that turns into. Maybe we’ll have some things go one direction or another. I’ll be willing to weigh my options when it’s over, but I think there will be some opportunities.”

Q: Did it ever cross your mind, when you weren’t playing much the last couple of years, that you could be playing more if you still had gone to Wisconsin-Milwaukee instead of following former UWM coach Bruce Pearl to UT?

CHILDRESS: “No, I don’t think so. If you weigh your options like that, you think about everything that you’ve got to do. I had the experience of being in the Sweet 16 a couple of times. I’ve won the SEC championship, SEC East championships, been to the Big Dance every year. What more can you ask for?

“We play in front of 20,000-plus fans. You have a new facility, a new practice facility. The list goes on and on and on — the way we travel, the way fans support us. You don’t get that at other levels. You could be able to play more minutes, but you can’t think about that, because the experience just outweighs everything here. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve enjoyed the experience and enjoyed the whole process. It’s been great for me.”

Q: So all of that has overshadowed any thoughts you might have had about, say, playing 30 minutes at a mid-major?

CHILDRESS: “Anybody on this roster that’s got a scholarship could be playing 30 minutes anywhere in the country — mid-major or whatever you want to say. Anybody could do that. But I think it’s the ones that enjoy the experience and make the most out of the biggest level possible.

“For me, it was like, ‘Let’s come here and see what you can do with the big boys, and just try it out.’ You’ve got nothing to lose, so I just bring it every day. I think I’ve made a good case for being able to hang up here a little bit, so I’ve had fun with that.”

Q: That said, this hasn’t been the easiest season for you. Few would have predicted your career taking this path. What’s this season been like for you?

CHILDRESS: “It’s been a lot of ups and downs, really. I didn’t know I was going to be hurt. I didn’t know when I was going to be back, and the ups and downs of rehab, and then finally getting back and not getting to play, being on the practice squad. It’s been ups and downs. I’ve just really tried to keep an even keel throughout the whole thing, keep my head up, because what do I have to hang my head about?

“I’ve had a great time down here. The people still support me, and I love them to death for that. I can’t hang my head about anything. I’ve had too much fun. I’ve met too many good people and enjoyed the experience.”

Q: So no bitterness?

CHILDRESS: “I guess I could have gone that way, but it wouldn’t make much sense. Of course, as a competitor, I know I could go out there and contribute at least a little and make some good things happen for us. But it’s not about me, or any other individual. It’s about Tennessee basketball, and I stand behind Coach Pearl’s decisions. It’s his team, his call, and he obviously knows what he’s doing.

“I just hope we can get some more rings. We got another SEC East one this week, but I’d like a bigger one — a way bigger one. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything, but it would obviously be nice to go out on top.”