Rick Barnes says Tennessee's JP Estrella is 'right where we need him' in recovery from injury
Rick Barnes and the Tennessee Basketball staff are still being cautious with JP Estrella. But that doesn’t mean there’s any concerns as the redshirt sophomore power forward continues his comeback from foot surgery last November.
Barnes said before practice Thursday afternoon at Pratt Pavilion, the last practice of Tennessee’s summer activities, that Estrella is right on schedule.
“He’s doing exactly (what he needs to),” Barnes said. “He’s right where we need him to be. And he’s coming back, he’s playing.”
Estrella has seemingly been full go during the summer, working in five-on-five scrimmage work with his teammates during open practices this summer.
His sophomore season ended after just three games when he had to undergo foot surgery to address a lingering issue that first became a problem last summer.
“He’s the one guy that we knew from the beginning,” Barnes said, “that we were going to bring him along, how fast we would do it. He’s right where he needs to be. And we still have him on … a pitch count. And we’ll continue that until we get back in in the fall.”
JP Estrella played in just three games last season
Estrella averaged 4.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in 10.3 minutes per game in his three appearances last season. He was a four-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, ranked No. 59 nationally and No. 8 at center, picking Tennessee over Syracuse, Iowa and Duke, among others.
Estrella averaged 5.0 minutes off the bench while playing in 25 games as a freshman during the 2022-23 season, averaging 1.6 points and 0.8 rebounds per game while shooting 71.4% from the floor.
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He went from putting no weight on the foot after surgery to a walking boot late last season. He was on the floor this summer with his teammates going through five-on-five scrimmage work.
Nate Ament, Cade Phillips dealing with injuries
Estrella’s foot wasn’t the only injury Tennessee has had to manage this summer.
Five-star freshman wing Nate Ament has missed practice time recently with a minor left wrist injury, but Barnes said he would be playing in games if the same injury happened during the season. Junior forward Cade Phillips is still dealing with the left shoulder injury that he dealt with last season, continuing to wear a brace.
Both Phillips and Ament worked on the side with Tennessee staffers doing basketball activities during Thursday’s practice.
The Vols will now take a brief break before resuming team activities when the fall semester begins on August 18.
“There’s not a guy when you practice (hard), and we do practice (hard), that is not banged up a little bit,” Barnes said. “But every guy — Cade re-injured his shoulder, but again, we’re just cautionary.
“And we want him to come back when we get back here in the fall in a couple weeks. We want to make sure everybody is100% ready to go.”
