Tennessee basketball held a practice open to the media on Thursday evening at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
The Vols mostly did half court work during practice and no scrimmage portion of practice so practice notes will be on the shorter side today. But there was a considerable amount of five-on-five action so there’s still takeaways to glen from the action.
Let’s start with injuries. Rick Barnes informed us earlier in the day that Chaz Lanier is dealing with a foot injury and has been in-and-out of practice over the last week. Lanier didn’t do any team work on Thursday as he worked on shooting on the other end of the court for a chunk of practice and was inactive for the rest of it.
On a positive note, JP Estrella did by far the most work that I’ve seen from him this preseason. Estrella was pretty close to full go and was getting a ton of work in.
With Lanier sidelined two things of note happened with lineups, Jordan Gainey exclusively ran the point guard spot on the second team. Both Gainey and Lanier have been rotating between the starting two-spot and the backup point guard spot so far this preseason.
Freshman Bishop Boswell earned most of the starting two reps but I don’t read much into that in far as role on this team. He was just the other combo guard available and Gainey running point guard for the two made it more likely there was a competitive practice.
I thought Gainey had a nice day. He did a solid job handling Zakai Zeigler’s ball pressure and also did a good job of getting to the middle of the court and hitting some shots. He had a really nice and-on when he drove to about five-feet from the basket in the paint, pump faked and then finished through contact from Zeigler.
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Cam Carr had his best practice of the handful that have been open to the media this preseason. Maybe the most positive aspect of it was that he didn’t really do anything spectacular, but he limited turnovers and did a really nice job of getting within 10-feet of the basket, playing off two feet and finishing. He also hit a triple at the end of the shot clock on one possessions.
Car maybe didn’t make any wow plays on Thursday but center Felix Okpara did. There were a pair of times when he seemingly came out of no where to block a Cade Phillips dunk attempt at the rim. These weren’t drives by Phillips, but him catching the ball of cuts when Okpara seemingly came out of nowhere to send it back. The Ohio State transfer may have committed a foul (with the body) on the second one but the first one was definitively clean.
Speaking of Phillips, he didn’t have a big day on Thursday but did have a few impressive offensive rebounds. And from talking to coaches at media day, I remain convinced that he’s going to have a consistent role on this team.
Zakai Zeigler was the best guy on the court on Thursday which is little surprise given he’ll likely be a Preseason First Team All-SEC selection this season. Just in complete control of things and did a real nice job of play making when possessions broke down. He’s going to have to do more of that this season with Dalton Knecht off to the NBA.
Igor Milicic had a quiet practice. Didn’t do a lot of negative things by any means but he also didn’t create a bunch on the offensive end. I remain high on him.
Apologies for not watching JP Estrella more carefully. I should have given his injury and how much work he did. He did some nice things scoring off of pick and rolls. Didn’t seem to grab a ton of rebounds which is a bit of a concern given his rebound rate wasn’t a strength as a freshman.
Tipoff is in less than a month for the Vols and their charity exhibition against Indiana is just over two weeks away. It’s still football time in Tennessee but basketball season is knocking on the door.
