Tennessee

Tennessee basketball updates J.P. Estrella injury status vs. Vandy on SEC Availability Report

Published

4 months ago

February 20, 2026

Tennessee basketball updates J.P. Estrella injury status vs. Vandy on SEC Availability Report

J.P. Estrella on Friday was listed as questionable on the initial SEC Availability Report for Tennessee basketball’s game at Vanderbilt on Saturday. The availability report will be updated around Noon Eastern Time on Saturday.

Estrella is dealing with soreness in his left foot, which left him limited in practice Friday morning at Pratt Pavilion. He did not play in the 89-66 win over Oklahoma on Wednesday, after being listed as doubtful on the initial availability report on Tuesday.

The Vols on Friday also listed Clarence Massamba as out for the second time in three games as the freshman guard deals with a right hip issue.

Tennessee (19-7, 9-4 SEC) goes to Vanderbilt (21-5, 8-5) on Saturday for a 2 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville.

‘I don’t think there’s any question it is a concern for him’

Rick Barnes said before practice Friday morning that Estrella is still considered day to day.

“They were doing some stuff with him yesterday on the treadmill,” Barnes said. “And I believe it will be a day-to-day thing from here on out, I would just guess.”

Barnes added the decisions moving forward would “be based on what he feels” after dealing with a foot injury in the past.

“I don’t think there’s any question it is a concern for him,” Barnes said. “Feet problems are hard to get right. … It’s just some soreness set in and we just have to get it quieting down.”

In November 2024 Estrella had surgery to address a stress fracture in his left foot, ending his sophomore season after just three games.

Estrella is averaging 9.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while shooting 61.6% from the field in 17.3 minutes per game this season, making seven starts in his 23 appearances. He had 16 points and had nine rebounds in 28 minutes during Tennessee’s 73-63 win over LSU Saturday, including 18 minutes in the second half.

J.P. Estrella this season: 9.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, 61.6% FG

He had played 17 or more minutes in seven straight games, including a career-high 35 against Ole Miss on February 3 and 31 at Georgia on January 28.

Estrella has missed two games due to injury this season: November 20 vs. Tennessee State and December 2 at Syracuse. He suffered a bone bruise in a win over Rice on November 17 and a week later turned his ankle in a loss against Kansas in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.

In his last two appearances Estrella is 10-for-14 from the field, scoring 28 points to go with 16 rebounds. He had 11 points and eight rebounds in the loss at Kentucky.

Barnes noted Wednesday that the current soreness is in a different area of Estrella’s left foot and that Estrella played through some soreness before alerting Tennessee’s staff.

“I think it had been sore and he didn’t tell anybody because I think he wants to play so badly,” Barnes said. “… I think it was sore before he let us know it because he wants to really help this team and his teammates.

“But he can’t do that. He has had that problem with that foot. That is something that you can’t mess around with.”

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Tennessee

Tennessee baseball adds pitcher Ricky Ojeda, UC Irvine transfer

Published

5 hours ago

June 20, 2026

Press Room

Tennessee baseball adds pitcher Ricky Ojeda, UC Irvine transfer

Tennessee baseball received a commitment from UC Irvine pitcher Ricky Ojeda on June 19.

Ojeda, who is eligible for the MLB draft in July, announced his decision on social media. He visited Tennessee on June 15-16.

The lefthanded Ojeda had a strong 2026 season primarily as a reliever, posting a 3.77 ERA with 62 strikeouts and 20 walks in 62 innings. In 2025, he became the first reliever to be named Big West Pitcher of the Year after going 13-1 with a 3.55 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 66 innings, which also earned him a third-team all-American nod from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Perfect Game.

Whether Ojeda makes it to Tennessee remains an open question. Perfect Game ranked him as the No. 179 prospect for the draft. That would place him in the sixth round.

Should Ojeda join the staff, however, he would instantly become one of the team’s top options out of a bullpen that struggled immensely in 2026. The pitching staff is also under new leadership under pitching coach Austin Knight, who was hired from ECU.

Ojeda is the fourth player to announce they will transfer to Tennessee this offseason, joining two-way Mercer transfer Braydon Kersey, Northwestern State pitcher Brody Trosclair and Air Force infielder Wyatt Hanoian.

Who’s leaving Tennessee baseball

UTL Jay Abernathy (Oklahoma)
RHP Nic Abraham
INF Ariel Antigua (Arizona)
INF Finley Bates
RHP Ari Bethea
OF Hutson Chance
RHP Sawyer Deering (San Diego State)
OF Nate Eisfelder
1B Evan Hankins (Virginia Tech)
UTL Hunter High
RHP Brayden Krenzel (Arkansas)
INF Manny Marin
INF Ethan Moore (Missouri)
UTL Chris Newstrom
LHP Taylor Tracey
C Cash Williams (West Virginia)

Who’s joining Tennessee baseball

RHP/DH Braydon Kersey
LHP Brody Trosclair
INF Wyatt Hanoian
LHP Ricky Ojeda

Emmett Siegel covers Tennessee baseball for Knox News. Email: emmett.siegel@knoxnews.com; X: @EmmettSiegel_

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Tennessee

Shooting Hunger event aims to prevent childhood hunger in West Tennessee

Published

15 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Press Room

Shooting Hunger event aims to prevent childhood hunger in West Tennessee

JACKSON, Tenn. (WBBJ) – An exciting day of sporting clays in West Tennessee is doubling as a major fight against hunger.

Today’s “Shooting Hunger” event took place at the Carroll County Shooting Sports Park in Huntingdon. It’s a partnership between Tennessee Farm Bureau, Tennessee Farmers Co-Op, Farm Credit Mid-America and Rural First.

Shooting Hunger at Carroll County Shooting Sports Park(Gray News)

Since 2015, Shooting Hunger has helped provide more than three million meals to Tennesseans with money going to food banks, backpack programs, and local hunger relief. A $500 scholarship will also go to the top youth shooter in each flight.

“We’re joining together to raise money for school backpacks to feed hungry kids. We do these, we actually do three of these across the state of Tennessee so at the end of the day we take, we take all the money we put it into a pile and when we divide equally amongst all 95 counties across the state of Tennessee,“ said Bryan Wright, executive vice president for the Tennessee Farm Bureau.

Organizers say events like this matter because one in six children in Tennessee struggle with hunger.

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Tennessee

Inside Tennessee 4×100 relay’s NCAA title, outlasting four botched exchanges

Published

1 day ago

June 19, 2026

Press Room

Inside Tennessee 4×100 relay’s NCAA title, outlasting four botched exchanges

Tennessee director of track and field Duane Ross gauged the hunger of the men’s 4×100-meter relay team to pull off the upset.

“They said, ‘Coach, we’re going to win,’ ” Ross said. “When they bring you that much confidence, you can grab your popcorn and enjoy the meet.”

No popcorn was consumed, but the appetite was there from the start.

Traunard Folson, Davonte Howell, T’Mars McCallum and Elijah Clark finished in a school record time of 37.98 seconds at the NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 12 in Eugene, Oregon. It was the the program’s first national title in the 4×100 since 1983 and the fourth-fastest in NCAA history.

Four other relay teams never crossed the line. Auburn, the two-time defending champion, had run an NCAA-record 37.75 in the semifinal, but had a botched handoff on the last exchange. Arkansas, the reigning SEC champion, also dropped its baton, along with Oregon and Houston.

McCallum said staying clean through a race of chaos starts with a focus on winning, even in practice.

“In the moment we can’t really worry about anything else, just what we can control,” McCallum said on June 18. “We came to practice every time with the idea of, ‘OK, we’ve got to make sure this is fixed, because we know if we run that time, we can win.’ “

It was the final event of McCallum’s college career. It didn’t fully hit until the long flight home to Knoxville.

“I was like, we really did it,” he said. “Now we have a school record, the first team to ever go under 38 seconds here.”

Whether belief had anything to do with what went wrong in those four other lanes isn’t something Tennessee’s runners can answer. It’s exactly what they point to for why theirs didn’t.

Clark, a freshman who ran the anchor leg, said winning was just a matter of starting the race.

“We knew we had it the whole time,” he said. “No matter who did what, what happened, we knew what the outcome would come to.”

Ross said the victory wasn’t a surprise inside the program either.

“I wouldn’t say unsung,” Ross said. “I’ve watched this team all year long, and we were expecting to come out of there with the championship. It was a tight competition down to the last event.”

Tennessee finished third in the men’s team standings with 46 points, its best total since 2002.

Howell, a junior who ran the second leg, said the belief behind the relay team’s confidence was built long before the race.

“Three of the four of us already ran under 10 seconds,” he said. “Last year we all trained together during the summer, all lived together. We already had the bond, and adding the freshman on anchor was just a cherry on top. He figured it out at SECs, ran a 10.1, season’s best, and we trusted him to bring it home.”

Clark said the title is already part of something bigger to him.

“The goal is to always make history,” said Clark, who was hired by Tennessee four years ago after a successful run at North Carolina A&T. “It’s been one of my dreams. To be able to be on the wall, especially at a school like this, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

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