Tennessee guard Bishop Boswell remains day-to-day with a right shoulder injury as he returned to practice on Monday.
It is seemingly the first day that Boswell has been a full participant in practice after associate head coach Justin Gainey said he had only been working off to the side with strength and conditioning coach Garrett Medenwald earlier on Monday morning.
“I don’t know exactly where it is, but he’s not back in practice,” Gainey said. “He is working out with G(arrett Medenwald). He said he’s feeling better, starting to feel better. But exact timeline, that would be more of a Chad question. But, he does just in his conversations, it it does feel better and the motion is a little more comfortable.”
Boswell suffered a right shoulder injury playing ball screen defense in Tennessee’s 84-36 win over Western Carolina on Dec. 17. The 6-foot-4 combo guard has been sidelined since and missed the Vols’ win over MTSU in their last game before the Christmas break.
Following the win, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes expressed hope that Boswell would be back in the fold when the team returned from break.
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Boswell has had a small role to this point in his freshman season, averaging just 0.6 points, 0.8 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 3.9 minutes per game. But after Cam Carr quit the team last week, Boswell is entrenched as Tennessee’s ninth man and will likely get minutes most games and could have an extended role in games while others battle foul trouble.
That was most evident in the Illinois game when he played six second half minutes while Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier battled foul trouble, playing strong defense and grabbing three rebounds in the process.
“I know he’ll do everything he needs to do while he’s there to rehab it and do that,” Barnes said following the MTSU game. “He said he’s feeling better, but like I said, we’re playing the long game with him. We know we’re going to need him and once we get into SEC play, it’s really up to him once he gets comfortable.”
Boswell’s status for Tennessee’s matchup against Norfolk State on Tuesday is uncertain but him doing five-on-five work in practice is a big step in the right direction. If Boswell is out, the Vols will have just eight scholarship players available.
The Vols should have little issue getting past Norfolk State without Boswell but could use the freshman guard back when they open up SEC play on Saturday against Arkansas in Knoxville.
