No update on Josiah-Jordan James, but No. 22 Vols again find a way to win
Rick Barnes didn’t have an answer for the status of Josiah-Jordan James and his sore knee after No. 22 Tennessee’s 73-66 overtime win over USC on Thursday in the Battle 4 Atlantis semifinals.
“It’s day-by-day,” Barnes said after the win over USC. “That’s what it is.”
The Vols (4-1), after winning two games in two days without James, will play No. 3 Kansas Friday (7:30 p.m. Eastern Time; SEC Network) in the tournament championship game on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
James warmed up before Thursday’s game but did not play. He didn’t dress Wednesday, when the Vols beat Butler 71-45 in the opening round.
“We felt coming in (that he would be out),” Barnes said Wednesday during his postgame press conference. “We knew that he wasn’t going to be available today. We’ll wait and see. He’ll be questionable tomorrow. We’ll decide. Day to day.”
Vols to face Kansas in Battle 4 Atlantis championship game
James missed the preseason while coming back from offseason knee surgery. He returned to the court in the season-opening win over Tennessee Tech and has played in all three games this season.
He leads the Vols in scoring (13.7 points per game) and rebounding (6.0) while averaging 23.7 minutes per game. He scored 18 points and had six rebounds against Florida Gulf Coast last week at Thompson-Boling Arena. He had 15 points and eight rebounds in the 78-66 loss to Colorado in Nashville on November 13 and scored eight points against Tennessee Tech.
James underwent a knee scope in the spring and had three injections done — one per week for three straight weeks — last month.
Top 10
- 1Breaking
Bryce Underwood
Michigan flips No. 1 QB Bryce Underwood from LSU
- 2
Portnoy reacts to Underwood flip
Barstool founder fired up over 5-star commit
- 3
Sankey fires scheduling shot
SEC commish fuels CFP fire
- 4Hot
JuJu to Colorado
Elite QB recruit Julian Lewis commits to Coach Prime
- 5
Travis Hunter
Colorado star 'definitely' in 2025 draft
Without James on Thursday, Tennessee got 25 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals from five-star freshman wing Julian Phillips in 38 minutes against USC. He went 7-for-13 from the field, 1-for-1 from the 3-point line and 10-for-12 from the free-throw line.
Up Next: No. 22 Tennessee vs. No. 3 Kansas, Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Senior forward Olivier Nkamhoua had 12 points and six rebounds and Tyreke Key scored eight points. Santiago Vescovi had seven points, including the go-ahead three late in overtime, to go with five assists and four rebounds.
Four Tennessee players logged 30 or more minutes against USC — Phillips (38), Vescovi (37), Nkamhoua (37) and Zakai Zeigler (33). Still, the Vols used their depth to find a way to win without James for the second time in as many days.
“I think this tournament has been great for us,” Barnes said. “We still haven’t gotten our feet under us totally. Playing against a (Butler) team like we did yesterday, then coming back today against a zone (USC) team.
“First time all year we’ve played against a team that plays a lot of zone. But we knew it wouldn’t be easy and it wasn’t.”
