Star Tennessee basketball freshman Nate Ament missed his first game of the season Tuesday night as the Vols rolled past South Carolina 78-59 in Columbia. Ament missed the game with a right ankle injury that he first suffered against Missouri but then worsened against Alabama.
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes called it a high ankle sprain after the South Carolina game but also assured everyone that Ament would play again this season.
“Absolutely,” Barnes said. “I’m telling you, he would have played today. If they would have agreed to let him play today. That’s who he is. He just wants to play. … I guarantee you if this was our last game of the year, Nate Ament would’ve played.”
With the confidence that Ament will be back for the NCAA Tournament, there are some positives in Ament missing a few games this time of the year.
Tennessee has been very dependent on both Ament and Ja’Kobi Gillespie for scoring in SEC play. Ament’s absence forces others— particularly JP Estrella— to step up and try to shoulder some of the burden alongside Gillespie. Estrella went for 22 points on Tuesday night against South Carolina’s weak frontline.
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Ament missing a game or two could very well have no real impact on what Estrella or the rest of Tennessee’s front court does the remainder of the season, but it could spark confidence and help provide a third scoring option for the Vols.
What is certain is that missing some time gives Ament an opportunity to rest before the postseason. That is a positive for the freshman who is taking on a major workload this season. He’s averaging 32.9 minutes per game in SEC play and had played 35-plus minutes of eight of Tennessee’s 11 games before exiting the Alabama game due to injury.
“I think it can (benefit him),” Barnes said. “Because, you know, he’s had a long year, and I’ve said I don’t think anybody’s gotten beat up in college basketball more than Nate Ament this year. I don’t. But he’s never complained about it one time. I’m the one that’s complained about it because I think it’s real. But I like to think that it could be a blessing in disguise.”
But even if there are positives of Ament missing time, Tennessee can not afford for him to miss much time. The Vols face Vanderbilt in their regular-season finale Saturday before heading to Nashville next week for the SEC Tournament.
Tennessee should want Ament to, at the very least, play some in Nashville so he is not rusty when the Vols begin play at the SEC Tournament.
