Tennessee Basketball: Uros Plavsic 'doubtful' to play against Florida Gulf Coast

Rick Barnes didn’t attempt to hide the change he would be making to his lineup. After the 78-66 loss to Colorado on Sunday at Bridgestone Arena, the Tennessee head coach said he had already told point guard Zakai Zeigler that he was moving out of the starting lineup.

“Zakai was wild,” Barnes said during his postgame press conference, “he was out of control. He was totally out of control to the point where I’ve already told him ‘you’re not starting’ because him starting the game hasn’t worked very well in terms of the way we want to get started. So we’ll have to make a decision on how we want to go that way.”

Tennessee will have another decision to make in the front court.

Uros Plavsic is listed as “doubtful” for Wednesday’s game against Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday at Thompson-Boling Arena. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start and can be streamed on either SEC Network+ or ESPN+.

Plavsic played just three minutes against Colorado before suffering a right ankle injury. He did not return to the game after leaving the floor under his own power with a limp.

“He turned his ankle,” Barnes said on Sunday of Plavsic. “It swelled up pretty good. It happens, obviously, in a game. You can twist it. But he couldn’t come back.”

No. 22 Tennessee vs. FGCU, Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network+

After facing FGCU, the Vols will be off until November 23, when the face Butler in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, the first of three games in three days.

Plavsic, the 7-foot-1, 265-pound senior center, started each of the first two games this season for Tennessee. He had two points, two rebounds, two turnovers and a steal in 11 minutes in the 75-43 win over Tennessee Tech on November 7.

Tennessee listed Indiana State transfer guard Tyreke Key as the probable starter at point guard, while adding senior wing Josiah-Jordan James to the lineup alongside Santiago Vescovi, Julian Phillips and Olivier Nkamhoua.

Zeigler was hardly alone in his struggles against Colorado, scoring 12 points on 4-for-12 shooting while committing two turnovers. Vescovi scored 11 points on 2-for-13 shooting with four turnovers. Nkamhoua had 10 rebounds, but scored just four points while shooting 1-for-8, to go with four turnovers of his own.

Key had 15 points but shot just 2-for-9. The Vols as a team made just 16 of their 63 field-goal attempts. They went 10-for-37 from the 3-point line.

Vols making lineup changes after frustrating loss

James scored 15 points and had eight rebounds, three steals, two blocks, two assists and a turnover in 27 minutes off the bench, going 5-for-11 from the field and 4-for-8 from the 3-point line.

He was on a minutes limit against Tennessee Tech, coming off the bench in the first two games after missing most of the preseason while still recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery last spring.

“Obviously as (Josiah) continues to get back he’ll be there at the start of the game,” Barnes said on Sunday. “We have to get better execution at the start of the game. We can’t start the game by throwing it out of bounds on the very first possession of the game.”

Zeigler committed both of his turnovers in the opening two minutes of the game, on the first possession at the 19:34 mark, then again with 18:11 left in the half.

“When things aren’t going well one guy can’t think I’m going to go make this happen and throwing up shots … we have good guards. They have to make the game easier for everybody including themselves. They can do that by playing together and believing in what we’re doing and not thinking I’ve got to score. I’ve got to score. 

“We have to get back to really, truly having a defensive mindset and I’m telling you their instincts will take over on the offensive end.”