Hop into the passenger seat of Rasheem Barrett’s car, and you might get flashbacks to the last time you rode shotgun with Gramps.

“I need to see out the window and what-not,” said Barrett, who added his driver’s seat sits as upright as possible. “Loud music? I don’t need to listen to all that loud music. Just put it on level three or four and I’m good.

“Jazz and all that good stuff. You’d be surprised at the kind of music I listen to.”

Barrett is old school, through and through — and the knee-high socks he wears on the court aren’t the only thing “throwback” about his game.

While the rest of his teammates are trying their best to slam one home or nail a 3, the senior guard relishes at stopping short.

Barrett has found a rhythm of late on offense, and the majority of his points are coming as a result of a lethal mid-range jumper.

Barrett, who picked up a career-high 29 points against Vanderbilt last week and 27 this past Saturday against Tennessee, credits his father, Steve, for preaching the value of the sparsely used shot since before Barrett could walk.

But it wasn’t exactly an easy sell.

“I was like, ’Mid-range? C’mon dad. I don’t want to do that,’” Barrett said. “And I see it now these days and it comes in handy. It works.”

Barrett, a muscular 6-foot-5, 220-pounder, presents a tricky matchup for perimeter defenders because of his size. The same can be said for interior defenders because of his quickness.

So when Barrett barrels toward the hoop with a defender on his hip, or one waiting for him underneath the hoop, the abrupt stop-and-pop jumper is pretty much unblockable.

And unexpected.

“You look at shot charts today, you don’t see a lot in that 10- to 12-foot range,” coach Jeff Lebo said. “And the way he shoots it and how high he shoots it gives him a big advantage.”

All Barrett has to do is make it.

“You just take somebody off the dribble, one, two, pop,” Barrett said. “They never know when you pull up.”

After battling a pulled groin and a sluggish start — likely made worse by the pulled groin — Barrett has emerged as one of the Tigers’ top scoring threats since conference play began. He averages just 9.3 points per game for the season, but is second on the team with 14.3 points per game against SEC opponents — just .2 behind DeWayne Reed’s 14.5 per game.

Barrett’s confidence seemingly hadn’t gone anywhere before the hot streak, as he playfully talked smack about former teammate and good buddy, Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks, before last month’s meeting with the Wildcats.

But currently, as the Tigers prepare for their home matchup tonight against Arkansas, Barrett’s swagger is at an all-time high, forward Lucas Hargrove said.

“He’s always capable of putting up big numbers, but sometimes he loses his confidence,” Hargrove said. “As long as keeps that, he’s going to be tough to guard.”

As long as the “old man,” as his teammates call him, keeps knocking down his over-the-hill jump shots, confidence shouldn’t be an issue.

“Old man’s, new man’s, as long as it work,” Hargrove said. “Don’t matter to me.”

| 737-2561