Tennessee basketball worked inside Pratt Pavilion on Tuesday afternoon as they officially started preseason practice six weeks ahead of the season opener.
Rick Barnes said at his charity golf outing on Monday that they were going to “handle things slowly” with JP Estrella as he deals with a banged up left foot. But Estrella did more at practice than I expected. He worked off to the side during one-on-one drills but did some work while Tennessee went through offensive and defensive concepts against the scout team. Once Tennessee started scrimmaging, Estrella went to ride the bike off to the side.
I spent most the time during one-on-one drills with the guards where Chaz Lanier went up against Jahmai Mashack, Zakai Zeigler went up against Cam Carr and Jordan Gainey went up against Bishop Boswell.
While Lanier’s athleticism and ability to create off the dribble remains something I’m a bit skeptical of, he’s really crafty playing in the midrange and made some tough shots over Mashack
Zeigler versus Carr is such a fun matchup because of the vast length advantage that Carr has. The matchup forces Carr to use his physicality to his advantage and it prepares Zeigler for the challenge of finishing around players with much better length.
On a different drill where one player in help defense jumps vertically to defend the rim against a driving player, Carr finished a dunk over Zeigler. It’s the fourth video below and there’s some more battles from the one-on-one posts up here.
First day of official practice for the reigning SEC Champions. pic.twitter.com/yXWOokA9E3
— Ryan Schumpert (@rschump00) September 24, 2024
One play that caught my eye from a three-on-three drill came when Zeigler drove baseline and dropped a beautiful bounce pass to Felix Okpara who made the goal shake for a good 30 seconds with a ferocious slam.
What I saw from the transfers on Tuesday is largely what I’ve seen from the transfers in the practices open to the media in July and August. Milicic is a really talented three level scorer. Okpara is a force around the rim on both sides of the court. Lanier didn’t have one of his better shooting afternoons but I still believe he’s one of the best shooters on the team. Then Darlinstone Dubar is a guy who is very physical and has some defensive versatility but it’s easy to lose track of him at times out there.
Tennessee did a lot of work on defense against the scout team as they worked on defensive fundamentals and concepts.
Two quick final notes before getting to the scrimmage stuff. Program legend Chris Lofton was in the building and watched the entirety of Tennessee’s practice while Athletic Director Danny White also dropped by and watched a good bit of practice.
More From RTI: Everything Tennessee HC Rick Barnes Said On First Official Day Of Practice
Scrimmage Stats
One note before we get to it. Jordan Gainey spent the first half of the scrimmage as the second team (grey) point guard before switching to shooting guard for the orange team. Chaz Lanier was the inverse, starting with the orange team before going to run point guard for the grey team.
Also, I missed one bucket for each team so apologies there.
Orange (Score: 25)
– Zakai Zeigler: 0 points
– Chaz Lanier: 0 points
– Jordan Gainey: 0 points
– Jahmai Mashack: 2 points
– Igor Milicic: 7 points
– Felix Okpara: 14 points
Grey (Score: 21)
– Bishop Boswell: 0 points
– Chaz Lanier: 0 points
– Jordan Gainey: 3 points
– Darlinstone Dubar: 2 points
– Cam Carr: 6 points
– Cade Phillips: 8 points
Scrimmage Notes
Tennessee scrimmaged for roughly 30 minutes and it’s Important to note that this isn’t what you’d think of as a typical scrimmage. There were plenty of stoppages especially early in the scrimmage when Barnes wasn’t super happy with some things he saw.
I doubt that Tennessee went up-and-down the court more than three times without a stoppage during the scrimmage portion of practice.
Also, early in the scrimmage they started things with an offensive big man and a defensive guard running ahead of the pack. That set up some scoring opportunities for big men.
With that, the big men had great days. Felix Okpara was perhaps the best player on the court, finishing with authority at the rim and running down rebounds. He even had one bucket on a left-handed hook, something that he’s struggled to do with a ton of consistency.
While Zakai Zeigler didn’t score any, he also didn’t take a ton of shots and had a ton of assists. He was still making plays despite the scoring numbers.
Cam Carr hit a pair of triples including one really nice pump fake, one dribble, step back three-pointer in the corner. He also had some pretty abysmal lob attempts that earned Barnes ire.
I’m buying stock on Cade Phillips. I don’t think he’s going to be a star on this team but he’s going to have a role game-in and game-out. He just does too many little things well on the court and I think he can shoot it well enough from the perimeter to be a more viable option as a four-man.
Lastly, Chaz Lanier just kind of blended in a lot today which isn’t what you want to see from a guy that you’re expecting to be a key scorer. Now, this was just one quasi scrimmage in one practice. The two other times we watched practice I think he hit four or five triples both days. So I wouldn’t put too much stock into that. However, it’s also why I don’t like him as the backup point guard. To me, it puts him in a role that limits his skillset a bit.
