Tennessee basketball held practice open to the media on Monday evening as the Vols continue through their summer work.
Let’s start with a few injury notes. Amari Evans is in concussion protocol and did not practice. Power forward Cade Phillips also didn’t practice after suffering a minor left shoulder injury last week. Phillips did work off to the side.
JP Estrella continues to do more-and-more as he works back from the foot injury that sidelined him for the vast majority of last season. Estrella did some five-on-five work in the half court, something I hadn’t seen him do since the November surgery. The junior center showed the nice touch around the basket that he’s been known for in his first two years in Knoxville.
Nate Ament missed a section in the middle of practice after banging up his wrist. But Ament did some work off to the side and came back in for the end of practice. He did little to dampen the hype around him while practicing.
The highest rated signee in Tennessee history shot the ball well from the three-point line and was lethal in the midrange. Rick Barnes got on him at one point for not getting to the basket more, but Ament continued to show off his offensive ability.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie had a nice day. Gillespie’s shooting was already a given but after watching him twice, I’m impressed by his ability to get to and score at the basket. He’s done that more frequently than expected.
Perhaps the best player during Tennessee’s Monday practice was Felix Okpara. The senior center was dominant for a large chunk of practice.
We saw that some last offseason, but he did it in a different way Monday. He scored with opponents at his back, hit turnarounds and hit multiple corner three-pointers. Barnes even got mad at Okpara at one point for turning down an open corner three.
There was one stretch of practice where Okpara spun baseline and scored, blocked an Estrella baby hook, made a baby hook of his own and then hit a corner three. Just one stretch in one practice but Okpara showed an offensive gear we hadn’t yet seen then.
Sticking in the front court, Jaylen Carey did some really nice things. He drew Barnes’ ire at times but shot the ball pretty well from the perimeter and used his force inside both on the offensive and defensive end.
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The most fascinating part of Tennessee’s roster in the battle for minutes beside Gillespie in backcourt. Evans has been out both times the media has watched practice while Clarence Massamba still is not on campus.
But from the limited bit I’ve seen, freshman Troy Henderson is the guy I like the most there. The under the radar point guard impresses me with his ability to catch-and-shoot from the perimeter and off the bounce in the midrange.
Henderson scored on curls and also did a good job facilitating for teammates. He’s going through the growing pains any young point guard deals with while playing for Barnes, but Henderson has flashed. And the thought of him running some point guard with Gillespie at the two-spot is really exciting.
A realistic but extremely positive hope is for Henderson to be able to come along like Zakai Zeigler did as a freshman allowing Henderson and Gillespie to play minutes together the way Zeigler and Chandler did in 2021-22. That would make for some really dynamic lineups.
Bishop Boswell also had some nice flashes during Monday’s practice. He looks more comfortable running the point guard spot than he did a season ago, hit some midrange jumpers and did a solid job facilitating. Boswell’s defense all but guarantees him having a role this coming season in my estimation. How big of a role remains the question.
I’m not counting out Louisiana Tech transfer shooting guard Amaree Abram at this point either. He knocked down some perimeter shots Monday and made some nice hustle plays. I’d like to see more of those hustle plays. There’s too many stretches of practice where you can forget that he’s out there.
The summer is the time to tinker with different lineups and Barnes threw out a hilariously large lineup for a 1-3-1 half court press. Nate Ament was at the top. DeWayne Brown, Jaylen Carey and Felix Okpara were in the middle while Ja’Kobi Gillespie was on the baseline. Talk about insane length.
One final small but cool note. The common discipline at practice is for Barnes to tell a player to run the stairs, typically happening when a player makes the same mistake too often. When this happens, another player is supposed to run the stairs with them.
Early in practice, Barnes sent Grant Hurst to run the stairs. But the drill Tennessee was doing made it tricky for another player to run with him. Without anyone saying anything, Cade Phillips sprinted from the complete opposite corner of the court to run the stairs with Hurst.
It’s a really small moment but I thought it spoke to Phillips’ character and Tennessee’s INAM (it’s not about me) culture.
