Tennessee basketball officially begins preseason practice on Tuesday as the season is just six weeks away. As the Vols ratchet up their preseason work they’ll be down sophomore power forward JP Estrella.
Estrella is dealing with a left foot injury that’s plagued him since the summer and has limited what he’s been able to do in practice.
“We have to make sure he is totally healthy before we bring him back because it is an area you can’t mess around with,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said at his Emerald Youth Golf Tournament on Monday. “It can turn into really a situation you don’t want it to. We are just going to make sure he is fully healthy before we get him back out there going full speed.”
Estrella averaged just 1.6 points and 0.8 rebounds while playing five minutes per game as a true freshman a season ago. The 6-foot-11 center was Tennessee’s third big man behind Jonas Aidoo and Tobe Awaka and played sparingly over the course of the season.
But Estrella did step up in Tennessee’s Elite Eight loss against Purdue. The freshman played 15 minutes, mostly in the second half, battling Purdue star Zach Edey and impressing with his physicality.
Now with both Aidoo and Awaka gone, Estrella is stepping up into a much bigger role this season. Ohio State transfer center Felix Okpara will almost certainly start for the Vols but Estrella will be his backup and have a major role this season.
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The timetable for when Estrella could fully return to the court is currently unclear with Tennessee not wanting to risk further injury ahead of the start of the season.
“It changes,” Barnes said of the timeline. “I think we have got the best medical staff in the country dealing with him. The way they test him, it will all be based on testing. With what we have at our disposal now, we can really tell where the strength is and everything. It is going to be a situation where we know he is able to handle slowly but surely building to the load he needs to handle.”
Fellow rising sophomore Cade Phillips is Tennessee basketball’s next big man option. The 6-foot-8 power forward is shorter than both Okpara and Estrella but does have range on his jump shot and has had a good offseason with the additional reps due to Estrella’s injury.
Even with Estrella, Tennessee has just 11 scholarship players on its roster ahead of the 2024-25 season. With Estrella limited, the Vols have had just 10 players full-go during practice which has led to an abundance of work for the active scholarship players.
“With JP being out, those other 10 guys have worked really hard and had a lot of high-quality reps,” Barnes said. “We’ve just got to have the focus we’ve had up to this point but we’ve got to continue to get better in all areas. There is nothing where we feel like we are ready to go play right now. It has been a fun group. We just have to keep getting them better.”
Tennessee basketball opens up its season on Nov. 4 when they host Gardner Webb at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
