The Tennessee basketball team, without starting center Felix Okpala, gave it its all in a win over Auburn and made some plays along the way.
Okpala missed the Vols’ 77-69 win at Food City Center because of a left calf injury. On Jan. 31, he popped up on availability reports just hours before the game and was considered day-to-day.
advertise
“He had some calf issues,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes confirmed after the game. “That was after the Georgia game and he got kicked out there.”
Okpala leads the Vols (15-6, 5-3 SEC) with 1.6 blocks per game. They had to get creative to imitate his inner being.
“We’re entering an area we’ve never been in before,” said Barnes. “We went into a box where we hadn’t worked on a few pieces and were just trying to buy some time. My thought was, if we didn’t know what we were doing, they probably wouldn’t know either.”
Freshman forward Dwayne Brown II replaces Okpala in the frontcourt. He had his best performance in the SEC game, scoring 10 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 block. Barnes is very happy with Brown but wants his entire team back soon.
advertise
“We need everyone,” he said. “If we can get everybody playing at a high level at the same time, we have a chance to be a really good basketball team.”
Wynton Jackson covers high school sports for Knox News. e-mail: wynton.jackson@knoxnews.com
Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks: knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel: Rick Barnes provides injury update to Felix Okpala after Tennessee game
