Tennessee freshman Nate Ament is dealing with a minor wrist injury that has limited him late in the Vols’ summer practices.
“Just cautionary. We want him to come back when we get back here in the fall in a couple weeks we want to make sure everyone is 100% and ready to go,” Barnes said.
Ament isn’t the only Vol dealing with an injury to close out the summer. Cade Phillips has missed time with a shoulder injury, JP Estrella is still working back from the foot injury that cost him his sophomore season, Amari Evans has missed time in concussion protocol and Troy Henderson has been banged up.
“If we were playing games, Nate would have played,” Barnes said. “We’ve done a lot with him. My idea with that is how do we play when Nate is not on the floor? How do we play when Ja’Kobi is not on the floor. How do we play if Felix is not on the floor? Again, I just said it, they all could have practiced but we’ve chosen not to do that. We’re not alarmed by any of that. It’s just given us a chance to have some fun and play with different lineups.”
Ament is the highest ranked recruit in program history coming in as a five-star recruit and the No. 4 player in the country according to the 247sports composite rankings. He also ranked as the No. 1 player in the state of Virginia.
Rick Barnes and his staff beat out Duke, Louisville, Kentucky and Arkansas to land the highly touted wing.
The 6-foot-9 wing had done nothing to temper the extremely high expectations during Tennessee’s summer workouts, consistently impressing with his ability to score at all three levels and handle the basketball despite his long frame.
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Ament also impressed people around Tennessee’s program with his ego-less nature. The blue-chip recruit takes coaching extremely well and is largely immune to bad body language.
The five-star freshman will almost certainly play just one season at Tennessee. Way-too-early mock drafts peg Ament as a top five pick in next summer’s NBA Draft. That would make Ament Tennessee’s highest drafted player of the Rick Barnes era and the first lottery pick since Marcus Haislip went No. 13 in the 2002 NBA Draft.
Tennessee does not have many other great options at the three-spot while Ament works back from injury. The Vols have a multitude of competition at the two-guard spot including Amaree Abram, Bishop Boswell, Troy Henderson and Amari Evans.
International prospects Clarence Massamba (France) and Ethan Burg (Israel) have yet to arrive on campus but will join that competition when they do. Massamba has the build of a true win at 6-foot-5.
Tennessee’s frontcourt depth is a major strength and one of Cade Phillips or Jaylen Carey could also play some at the three-spot, but spacing would certainly be an issue with any of those lineups.
Expectations are high for Barnes’ 11th Tennessee team. Despite losing four of five starters from a season ago, the Vols project as a top 20 team again next season due to its strong frontcourt and the additions of Ament and star Maryland point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie on the perimeter.
