As 20th-ranked Tennessee prepares to host rival Tennessee State on Thursday night in Knoxville, it will do so with its top scoring threat off the bench lost until December.
J.P. Estrella, a 6-foot-11 redshirt sophomore forward, left Monday night’s 91-66 win over Rice with a knee injury just before halftime. Estrella is the team’s third-leading scorer at 14 points per game despite not starting and averaging just 17 minutes per game.
Estrella, who also averages 6.8 rebounds per game and sinks 69.2% of his field goals, found out Tuesday that he has a bone bruise that will sideline him for the next two-to-three weeks.
“Avoiding a serious injury was great to hear,” Volunteers assistant coach Gregg Polinsky said Wednesday.
Estrella’s injury and the absence of sophomore guard Cameron Carr for up to six weeks with a left thumb injury leaves the Volunteers (4-0) with just nine scholarship players. Helping make up for Estrella’s departure Monday night was the play of Felix Okpara, who scored a career-high 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting while adding eight rebounds.
It might not matter Thursday night, but Tennessee might truly miss Estrella as soon as it plays No. 2 Houston next Tuesday in Las Vegas.
“Nobody can really stop him down there in the paint,” Volunteers point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie said after a game earlier this season. “If he is using his size and playing how he has been playing, we should be really good.”
In the short term, Tennessee’s nucleus might be light in terms of numbers but not in terms of ability. Star freshman Nate Ament is averaging 19.8 points and 9.0 rebounds, while Gillespie, a Maryland transfer, is scoring 16.5 points and dishing out 6.3 assists.
Through four games, the Volunteers are scoring 90.3 points while ranking second in Division I in assists (23.0) and sixth in rebounds (50.0).
Meanwhile, Tennessee State (2-2) is coming off a 95-82 defeat Sunday at Western Kentucky. It outscored the Hilltoppers 27-6 from the 3-point line and shot 25-of-34 at the foul line but couldn’t overcome poor defense and rebounding.
The Tigers allowed 54.7% shooting from the field and were beaten 35-27 on the glass. That negated a solid 22-point, nine-rebound effort from Aaron Nkrumah, upping his team-high scoring average to 18.5 points per game.
Memphis transfer Dante Harris, a contributor at the point last season for Penny Hardaway’s Tigers, is averaging a career-high 15.3 points.
Nkrumah is a preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference performer under first-year coach Nolan Smith, who came from Hardaway’s staff. Tennessee State was tabbed for a fourth-place finish in the OVC poll, which picked Little Rock to win the league.
Smith has scheduled like a coach who believes his team can do some damage in March. Besides the game with Tennessee, the Tigers have already played at Belmont and Western Kentucky with a later trip to UNLV before OVC play starts next month.
“We are preparing to compete to win,” Smith said. “We are very excited about this year’s schedule.”
The Volunteers have won all six previous meetings, including a 74-69 decision 10 years ago in the teams’ last matchup.
