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Rick Barnes said Sunday night after Tennessee’s win over Austin Peay that backup big man JP Estrella remains day-to-day with a foot injury that has persisted since the early part of the offseason.
Estrella did not play during the 103-68 win. The Vols had just a 7-man rotation until the final minutes of the game.
“He’s day-to-day. It’s the same injury he’s dealt with,” Barnes said. “He’s day-to-day right now until we can figure out a plan — a different plan, obviously.”
The 6-foot-11 sophomore scored 4 points in 11 minutes in the season-opener against Gardner-Webb. He scored a career-high 8 points in 9 minutes in the win over Montana this past Wednesday. After playing 30 combined minutes in the team’s first 3 games, he was forced back out of the lineup on Sunday.
“It is concerning,” Barnes said. “We know he wants to play. We know he has done everything he can do. I think the plan we had for him to start was the right plan. They are, again, day to day evaluating that to figure out now where do we go.”
Estrella came into the season as the primary backup for Felix Okpara. He’s averaging 4.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in his 3 appearances. In his absence, the Vols leaned entirely on forward Cade Phillips as the backup 5.
“We need Cade,” Barnes said. “The fact is, he has the ability. He can do a lot of things. The more he can play out there, the better he is going to be. I thought Shack today, we moved him in there some to play a little bit to play with basically 4 guards, which gives us that versatility to do that. There were times they had 5 guards on the court. Cade, we’ve got a lot of belief in him.”
Tennessee heads out on the road this upcoming week. It’ll travel to the Bahamas to face Virginia and then play either Baylor or St. John’s in the Baha Mar Tournament.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
