ATHENS, Ga. — Fresh off letting a six-point lead with four minutes to play slip away, Tennessee basketball needed a jolt of energy. JP Estrella gave them just that, bringing the juice in the huddle entering overtime as the Vols found a way, knocking off Georgia 86-85.
“He loves to play,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “I mean, with these games, I mean, you should have heard him in the huddle right before we were getting ready to start overtime. I mean, you could tell he’s loving it. Like let’s go, let’s play all night. And that’s a great thing about him.”
“Really just trying to build the energy and get the guys going and it worked great,” Estrella said.
Estrella followed up talk in the huddle with actions. Tennessee’s offense went static down the stretch of regulation, scoring just four points in the final four minutes. But Estrella scored on each of the first two possessions of overtime and got the Vols back on track in their overtime victory.
“We got a little stagnant at some point in time,” Estrella said. “It was just finding those little spots, late in the game we need to be a little better at. Coach did a great job of making sure we did.”
The 6-foot-11 sophomore scored five of his 17 points in overtime to go along with nine rebounds. It was Estrella’s best performance against meaningful competition in his career. He was efficient on the offensive end, making eight-of-12 field goal attempts, and was better with his physicality on the offensive glass.
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Tennessee’s coaches have harped on needing physicality from Estrella throughout the season. He’s not fleet of foot and that limits him defensively. But the Vols can live with that if he brings toughness and rebounding to go along with his offensive skillset.
“When he starts rebounding, he does a good job talking,” Barnes said. “And he did, again, he came up big. When he goes up and gets it with two hands, he’s really a force. The more he’s out there, again, the better he’s going to get. He missed a lot of basketball, but really happy with him because he’s doing the things that we need him to do.”
“He (Barnes) pretty much told me, just keeping being you but the biggest thing is you’ve got to be physical,” Estrella said. “You’ve got to have a little bit of that Uros (Plavsic) mentality. I’ve been trying to really do that on the glass and I feel like tonight was a night where I proved l can do that and I’ve just got to be consistent and keep doing that every night.”
Estrella’s big performance at Georgia comes in his second game in the starting lineup. The Maine native was not great at Alabama but did grab two key rebounds late. Barnes noted after the Alabama game that they, in part, went with Estrella because that is what they envisioned the starting lineup being before the season.
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It has been an up-and-down year for Estrella, but it has been for the rest of Tennessee’s front court. It’s notable that Barnes is giving Estrella more rope and allowing him to play through mistakes because his ceiling is higher and the rest of the front line is not running with their opportunities either.
The lack of front court production has been one of Tennessee’s biggest issues early in SEC play. Tennessee is built to be stout inside, but their big men were not playing at that level. Estrella’s performance at Georgia is a flash of what Tennessee needs and gives reason for long term optimism with this Volunteer team.
“I’m happy for him,” Barnes said. “We’ve always loved him, we’ve always believed in him and we just know that— and he knows it. I’m gonna tell him tomorrow, there’s still more. He’s raised the bar to where he’s doing what we know that he can do, but now we expect him to raise the bar even more.”
