Tennessee's Josiah-Jordan James, Julian Phillips still day-to-day ahead of Texas A&M game

Both Josiah-Jordan James and Julian Phillips remain day-to-day and will be game-time decisions for No. 11 Tennessee at No. 25 Texas A&M on Tuesday. The Vols (20-7, 9-5 SEC) and Aggies (20-7, 12-2) are scheduled for a 7 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN at Reed Arena in College Station.

Both players were again sidelined in Tennessee’s 66-54 loss at Kentucky on Saturday at Rupp Arena in Lexington.

James, the senior wing for the Vols who is dealing with a sprained left ankle, missed his straight game, after missing the 68-59 win over No. 1 Alabama on Wednesday and the 86-85 loss to Missouri on Saturday night. Phillips, who suffered a hip flexor injury in practice on February 10, also missed the Alabama game after not playing in the second half of the Missouri game.

Tennessee assistant coach Rod Clark before practice on Monday said what was obvious. The sooner the two players get back, the better.

“It’s important,” Clark said, “because I think the one thing that everybody looks at our team and we do keep the next man up mentality, but I think it’s an obvious thing that everybody sees that we do miss those guys. We miss the length, we miss the ability to get to the rim from (Phillips), we miss the size because obviously those are two guys that play the guard position for us and they make us bigger on the wings and we do miss it.

“But it’s important us to get it back. It’s important for us to have him healthy because they’re big parts of our team, especially down the stretch.”

The Vols return home to host South Carolina on Saturday and Arkansas on February 28 before closing the regular-season schedule at Auburn on March 4.

Vols looking to bounce back from four losses over last six games

James injured his left ankle with 17 seconds left in the 66-65 loss at Vanderbilt Wednesday at Memorial Gymnasium. Phillips had four points and two rebounds in the first half against Missouri before being held out the rest of the game.

“I was really impressed with Julian,” Barnes said on Monday. “He was hurt, he had hurt his hip flexor prior to that. His minutes, he was there, he was productive. But I could tell when we were walking off the court at halftime he was painfully hurting. But he wanted to play, but just no way.”

Tennessee beat No. 1 Alabama 68-59 on Wednesday at Thompson-Boling Arena with an eight-player rotation while James and Phillips were sidelined.

Zakai Zeigler scored 15 points and had eight assists, Santiago Vescovi scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half and added eight rebounds and three steals. Sophomore center Jonas Aidoo had his first career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Uros Plavsic and Olivier Nkamhoua combined for 19 points and eight rebounds.

The Vols trailed by 20 at halftime on Saturday at Kentucky. They rallied to cut the deficit to eight in the second half, before losing 66-54. Vescovi scored all 17 of his points in the second half and Jahmai Mashack scored a career-high 16 points in the loss.

Up Next: No. 11 Tennessee at No. 25 Texas A&M, Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN

James is averaging 9.5 points and 5.3 rebounds, shooting 37.5 percent from the field and 30.1 percent from the 3-point line. He’s started eight times in 16 games, averaging 23.9 minutes per game. He missed eight games earlier this season due to knee soreness.

Phillips averages 4.7 points and 4.9 rebounds in 24.9 minutes per game this season, starting all 25 games so far. 

“It’s rough,” senior forward Olivier Nkamhoua said on Monday. “Other guys have to step up, but as you’ve seen guys have stepped up and have done a good job and that’s a big part of our team. But that’s not really the main concern of us right now.

“Obviously we want those guys back and they’re going to be back and take care of their bodies and they’re going to be healthy and ready to play when it’s time to play but we have to find a way to win with what we have and that’s going to hold true all the way to the end of the year. We never know who’s going to be available and who’s not with this group of guys we have.”