Tennessee basketball guard Freddie Dilione is “day to day” with a foot injury ahead of the Vols’ matchup at No. 17 North Carolina.
Dilione is doubtful for Wednesday night’s game against North Carolina according to a UT spokesperson.
Dilione was dealing with foot pain before suffering partial tear in his plantar fascia in Tennessee’s win over Wofford. The talented freshman did not play in the Vols’ three games at the Maui Invitational last week.
“I think it’s day to day,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said on Monday. “We got back. He didn’t do do anything with us. We gotta get him healthy. That’s, that’s a tough one. I mean, if you don’t get it fixed, it’ll linger all year. And we don’t want that. We’re still in November and we got a long way to go. So we gotta make sure we get him totally healthy and before we can get him back out there.”
The North Carolina native was a partial participant in Tennessee basketball’s Monday afternoon practice open to the media.
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Dilione was the highest rated recruit in Tennessee’s 2023 signing class before early enrolling at Tennessee last January and practicing with the team while redshirting the season.
The 6-foot-5 guard is in the midst of a battle for playing time in a crowded Tennessee backcourt. Tennessee returned guards Zakai Zeigler, Santiago Vescovi and Jahmai Mashack from last season’s team in addition to adding USC Upstate transfer Jordan Gainey.
Gainey has been one of Tennessee’s better players in the early stages of the season as has transfer wing Dalton Knecht who’s shown a strong capability to playing shooting guard.
Still, Dilione is an extremely talented offensive player and has the potential to make a real impact this season as Barnes’ Monday comments indicated.
After three straight challenging games, Tennessee travels to North Carolina to face the Tar Heels in the ACC-SEC Challenge on Wednesday night. Tipoff at the Dean E. Smith Center is at 7:15 p.m. ET on ESPN.
