Tennessee freshman wing Cam Carr the latest player dealing with preseason injury

Tennessee basketball’s first scrimmage of the preseason featured just nine scholarship players available earlier this month. Zakai Zeigler was sidelined as his ACL rehab continues. Tobe Awaka was in concussion protocol. JP Estrella was out with a fractured finger.

Rick Barnes added another injury to the list Wednesday at SEC Media Day in Birmingham. Freshman wing Cam Carr is the newest Tennessee player to be sidelined. 

“Cam hit his head the other day,” Barnes said. “He’s in concussion protocol, so we’re doing some things in half court with Zakai, but he hasn’t gone up and down with us any yet. And he’s doing well. We’re just going to err on being cautious with him.

“But we haven’t had the whole team together to do what we would call what everybody does together. We haven’t had that all year, and we’ll get to it at some point.” 

Rick Barnes: Vols have dealt with injuries but ‘overall they’re making strides’

Carr was a four-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, signing with the Vols as the No. 55 overall player in the country in the On3 rankings. He was the No. 14 shooting guard in the class and ranked No. 2 in the state of Missouri, where he attended Link Academy.

No. 9 Tennessee is just 10 days away from its charity exhibition game at No. 4 Michigan State on October 29, a 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time start on Big Ten Network. Proceeds from the game at the Breslin Center in East Lansing will go toward Maui wildlife relief efforts. 

The Vols open the regular-season schedule on November 6, hosting Tennessee Tech at Thompson-Boling Arena. They go on the road to face Wisconsin on November 10 at the Kohl Center in Madison.

Barnes on Wednesday described the as the grinding time of the preseason, where freshmen are trying to continue to adjust and improve as the season draws closer. 

That task is a little tougher with the Vols being continually shorthanded.

“I think as a coaching staff, we’re all happy that we’ve got a group of guys that, they’re trying,” Barnes said, “and it’s tough when you don’t have the subs in practice when you’re trying to assimilate scrimmage games. And what scrimmages, in terms of how hard you want to play in scrimmages, but you don’t have subs. But overall they’re making strides.”

No. 9 Tennessee at No. 4 Michigan State, October 29, 3:30 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network

Estrella, the the 6-foot-11, 241-pound freshman from Maine, has returned to practice. So has Awaka, the sophomore power forward and the team’s best rebounder. 

Zeigler, who tore his ACL early in a win over Arkansas on February 28, said on Wednesday his goal is to return in time for the exhibition game at Michigan State. 

Barnes said in Tennessee’s more recent scrimmage work, the focus has been on mixing and matching players while looking at possible rotations. 

“When we start getting the whole team together, how do we want to sub? Can we put this (together)?” Barnes said. “What does this group look like together? So we’re doing more of that right now. And when you do that, when you had a group of guys that have played together for a week or so, you can tell they’ve got a little bit of a rhythm. 

“But we gotta do that more with different lineups. And some of it we can’t do it because of guys that you go into a practice thinking that today we’re gonna do this, but like Cam being out set it back a little bit, Zakai not being out there. Where does all that come into play? But we are trying to just mix lineups and see how different guys play together.”