BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Tennessee basketball has been battling a number of minor injuries and absences this preseason. Vols’ ninth year coach Rick Barnes previously announced that D.J. Jefferson, J.P. Estrella and Tobe Awaka were all sidelined in addition to point guard Zakai Zeigler.
Zeigler is working in half court sets and the trio of underclassmen are all back at practice. But Tennessee isn’t at full strength just yet.
“No, we don’t (have everyone available),” Barnes said at SEC Media Days Wednesday. “Cam (Carr) hit his head the other day. He’s in concussion protocol.”
A Minnesota native, Carr played his final season of prep basketball at Link Academy in Branson, Missouri with fellow Tennessee freshman Cade Phillips. Carr ranked as a four-star recruit and the No. 56 player in the country according to the 247sports composite rankings.
The 6-foot-4 shooting guard has impressed with his perimeter shooting and playmaking in his short time on campus.
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“He’s definitely a really talented guy,” Tennessee senior Santiago Vescovi said of Carr. “He can shoot the ball and he’s really smart too. I think he is, is versatile the word? He’s real versatile and gives us a lot of weapons on offense.”
Tennessee has an abundance of guard depth this season with Zakai Zeigler, Vescovi and Jahmai Mashack returning and redshirt freshman Freddie Dilione and USC Upstate transfer Jordan Gainey poised for meaningful roles. It will be challenging for Carr to break the rotation in SEC play but his head injury is still detrimental to the Vols and their ability to tinker with rotations.
“When you had a group of guys that have played together for a week or so, you can tell they’ve got a little bit of a rhythm,” Barnes said. “But we gotta do that more with different lineups. And some of it we can’t do it because of guys that you go into a practice thinking that today we’re gonna do this, but like Cam being out set it back a little bit, Zakai not being out there. Where does all that come into play? But we are trying to just mix lineups and see how different guys play together.”
As the preseason winds down, Tennessee is less than two weeks away from facing No. 4 Michigan State in a preseason charity game in East Lansing. The Vols officially open up their 2023-24 season against Tennessee Tech on Nov. 6 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
