Nate Ament injury update: Rick Barnes reveals latest on freshman's status for Vanderbilt game

Tennessee star freshman forward Nate Ament missed the first game of his career Tuesday night in the Volunteers’ blowout 78-59 win over South Carolina. He sustained an ankle injury in the Tennessee‘s 71-69 home loss to No. 17 Alabama last Saturday.

Heading into Tennessee‘s regular season finale on Saturday against No. 24 Vanderbilt, Ament’s status is up in the air. On Friday, head coach Rick Barnes revealed that Ament has not practiced this week. While stating that Ament would play if it were up to him, they’re not sure if he’s going to suit up.

“I don’t know that, if he’s going play. I know he’s doing everything he possibly can through rehab, working with Chad (Newman) and ‘G’ (Garrett Medenwald) and obviously through our doctors. And he’s a model patient, if that’s what you want to call him. But other than that, we don’t know. I’ve said it before, if it were up to him he’d play every game. But we’ve obviously got to make sure that we’re doing the right thing for Nate.”

Has Ament been practicing so far?

“No (he hasn’t practiced),” Barnes responded when he was asked. “I don’t know. We’ll see today. I really don’t (know). I think Chad had him do a little running yesterday, but he didn’t do anything with us (in practice). And again, I think it’s one of those deals where Chad might tell you he’s doing better than expected, but still that high-ankle sprain, it takes time.”

In 29 games this season, the five-star is averaging 17.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists. He seems to be a lock to be Tennessee‘s seventh All-SEC Freshman Team selection of the Rick Barnes era.

Tennessee could bolster Tournament resume with win over Vanderbilt

No. 24 Tennessee will face off against rival No. 24 Vanderbilt in its regular season finale on Saturday. Just three games ago, the Volunteers went into Memorial Coliseum and knocked off the Commodores 69-65 in their own arena. Ament played one of his worst games in conference play in the win over Vanderbilt, scoring just 13 points on 3-13 shooting from the field. One of his three made shots, however, came with 54 seconds remaining in the game to give Tennessee a 66-65 lead.

“Well, I just told Mike Keith it reminded me of the old Meadowlark Lemon trick where he hid it in his shirt,” Barnes said about the shot postgame. “I didn’t know where the ball was and all at once, it comes popping out of there. He struggled, but they had a lot to do with that, obviously. And he made that one when it counted. He stayed with it. But I thought our second line was really good today. The guys coming off the bench, we got a lot of good on both ends of the court. Both ends, those guys were really helpful to us.”

Tip-off for that game in Knoxville is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. ET on Saturday. A win for the Volunteers would wrap up a top-four seed in next week’s SEC Tournament.