J.P. Estrella dealing with ankle injury as Tennessee Basketball starts preseason practice

Tennessee Basketball will hold its first official preseason on Tuesday. And despite an entire spring and summer of offseason work, Rick Barnes still has something to look forward to: Seeing his team together for the first time … eventually. 

“We just got to get everybody healthy,” Barnes said Monday morning at his annual golf tournament benefitting the Emerald Youth Foundation. “We still haven’t had the entire team together for a full practice yet but we’re looking forward to that at some point.”

Again the injury of note entering the preseason is redshirt sophomore J.P. Estrella. This time a year ago it was a nagging foot injury that had slowed the 6-foot-11, 250-pound forward throughout the summer. Ultimately the injury turned into season-ending foot surgery performed in late November, after he had played in just three games. 

‘He came back and was playing the best basketball he had played’

The foot isn’t a concern now, but an ankle sprain is. 

“J.P. was doing great,” Barnes said. “We obviously have kept him on somewhat of a pitch count throughout the summer to make sure that he was totally healed. And he came back and was playing the best basketball he had played, and (then) he really had a pretty tough ankle sprain. 

“And again,” Barnes continued, “we played it slow with him, but he’s slowly working himself back again. But we expect tomorrow, when we get going, that he’ll be ready to go. And that was our goal from the beginning, to get him ready for the first day and start building from there.” 

Without Estrella last season, Tennessee relied heavily on center Felix Okpara and forward Cade Phillips. Okpara averaged 7.1 points and 6.4 rebounds in 25.8 minutes per game as Tennessee’s starting center, while Phillips averaged 4.6 points and 3.5 rebounds in 15.0 minutes off the bench. 

Estrella averaged 4.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in 10.3 minutes per game in three games before the surgery.

Okpara and Phillips both return in the post for the Vols, who also added Vanderbilt power forward Jaylen Carey out of the NCAA Transfer Portal, after Carey averaged 8.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in 20.2 minutes per game with the Commodores last season. 

Exhibition Opener: Tennessee vs. Duke, Sunday, October 26

Tennessee’s new-look roster was remade during the offseason, after losing Zakai Zeigler, Chaz Lanier, Jordan Gainey and Jahmai Mashack.

The Vols added Maryland point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Louisiana Tech guard Amaree Abram out of the portal to fill the void in the backcourt. They signed five-star wing Nate Ament, too, the No. 2 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class and the headline addition in the spring. 

Tennessee also added four-star center Dewayne Brown, a four-star recruit and top-100 prospect.

“With guys being out,” Barnes said, “you look at that as an opportunity for other guys to get a lot of reps. I think it really benefited a guy like Dewayne Brown that JP wasn’t there, Cade, obviously we’ve been careful with his shoulder.”

Phillips dealt with a shoulder injury last season and continued to wear a brace on the shoulder during offseason workouts.

“It’s a great group,” Barnes said, “and we’ve been able to get through it. And again, I think we’re all excited to see what we can do when we can really get everybody out there.” 

Barnes on Monday was asked what excites him the most ahead of the start of preseason practice. Despite the overhaul, he said it has been the fit of all the new pieces. 

“Probably the biggest excitement has been the camaraderie, the chemistry,” Barnes said, “when you bring in as many people as we did. And (we’re) really, really happy with our older group, to lead the way that they lead. 

“And every group leads a little bit different, but as a coaching staff we just really appreciate how these guys have really seemed to have gelled. They like each other.”