Tennessee is apparently set to get its star player back today in Nashville, with Nate Ament expected to return to action. The 5-star freshman wing hasn’t played in a couple of weeks now after hurting his ankle against Alabama. Ament missed both the South Carolina and Vanderbilt matchups.
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, he’ll be available today to open the SEC Tournament.
Tennessee landed a No. 5 seed in the SEC Tournament, just missing out on the double bye. The Volunteers will open with Auburn after the Tigers took care of Mississippi State on Wednesday. Tennessee previously beat Auburn 77-69 in Knoxville this season.
Ament was just coming into his own before suffering the injury. The 6-10 wing is averaging 17.4 points per game for the season, but that number was on the move late in the season. Ament scored 20+ points in six of his last nine games down the stretch, with his shooting percentage numbers going through the roof. Now with just a week left before the NCAA Tournament, Rick Barnes will try to settle him back into the lineup while also easing him back into action with the ankle in mind.
“He’s OK,” Rick Barnes said of Ament this week. “He did some more. He did some things with Chad the last couple days and I think he’ll see a little bit more today. But still we’ll just see. He has been doing more with Chad running and G, those type things.”
Tennessee will get rolling this afternoon in Nashville, set for a 3 p.m. ET tip-off against Auburn. SEC Network will have the call.
