Through three months of basketball, you’re not typically still shuffling through lineups to the level that Rick Barnes has been. A totally new group of players, injuries, youth — it’s all played a factor
throughout the season for Tennessee, and Barnes really hasn’t been able to settle on a starting five.
That may have changed over the last week, however. Tennessee has gone big, they’ve gone small, now Barnes has seemingly settled back on going big once again. An injury to Troy Henderson may have also played a role in that decision. The beneficiary here has been J.P. Estrella, who has cracked the starting lineup. Estrella, playing alongside of Felix Okpara, gives Tennessee two 6-11 guys on the floor. That goes along with the 6-10 Nate Ament on the wing, giving the Volunteers one of the bigger lineups you’ll see in college basketball.
“I just feel like this is who this team was built to have those big guys out there,” Rick Barnes said this week. “And the more they’re out there in these situations learning how to guard when we have to start switching, which we did. That’s the way for us to go right now. And by that, it gives us an advantage on most nights where we can get to the glass.”
An advantage on the glass was exactly what Tennessee had this week against Georgia. The Volunteers won the rebounding battle 52-27 in Athens, bringing down a staggering 26 offensive rebounds. Estrella had perhaps the biggest of the game, cleaning up a miss in overtime and giving Tennessee a late lead.
“When he starts rebounding, he does a good job talking,” Barnes said of Estrella. “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.”
Estrella ended the night with 17 points and nine rebounds on 8-0f-12 shooting. Barnes has been looking for consistency in the paint all season long, along with a third scoring option that can consistently help Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Nate Ament. Estrella could solve both of those issues.
“We feel our post guys can score, but you could tell he got lost in it and playing,” Barnes said. “And when he does that, he’s really good. He’s oftentimes way too hard on himself. We’ve tried to encourage him to, one play at a time. If it’s a good one, get on to the next. If it’s a bad one, get on to the next and not beat yourself up. And we’ve got a lot of confidence in him. And we knew the middle of the zone was going to be open and we wanted to get it there. And we didn’t care who got it. Just go make a play with it.”
The former 4-star prospect is finally healthy and it’s starting to show. Estrella has handled 26 and 31 minutes respectively in the last two games with that number bumping up due to a banged up Jaylen Carey. Interestingly enough, Tennessee has won two very difficult road contests in that span, maybe giving Barnes the formula going forward.
If Estrella can find some offensive consistency, this Tennessee team has an entirely new level to get to with Ament coming on as well.
“He’s just getting started too, and I think the more success he has, the more he’s gonna climb that plateau and keep going,” Barnes said. “Because throughout the year, you do hit plateaus and can you keep climbing or if you just stay there, you’re going backwards because everybody else is getting better. But I’m happy for him. 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.”
