Tennessee basketball forward Igor Milicic Jr. is listed as ‘probable’ to play in Wednesday’s game at Ole Miss, according to the SEC Availability Report released Tuesday night. Milicic has been dealing with an illness as the Vols head into the final week of the regular season. The senior did not practice on Tuesday before the team traveled to Oxford. Tipoff between No. 4 Tennessee and Ole Miss is set for 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
Milicic is just 17 points away from reaching 1,000 career points. This season, he has recorded at least 19 points, nine rebounds, and four assists in three separate games, joining an elite group of SEC players over the last 15 years to achieve that feat. Others on the list include LSU’s Ben Simmons, Auburn’s Johni Broome, Tennessee’s Grant Williams, and Texas A&M’s Tyrece Radford.
Tennessee assistant coach Gregg Polinsky addressed Milicic’s recent struggles, saying, “I don’t think he’s pressing. He’s trying to do what Coach has asked of him. At 6-foot-10, he has a unique ability to facilitate, and we know there’s a lot of pressure on our guards to handle that. Igor is trying to help alleviate some of that. Coach wants him to do that, so he’s figuring out how to balance scoring and facilitating. It’s a unique skillset for someone his size, and we haven’t had that here before. He’s still adjusting, and hopefully, he’ll put it all together soon.”
In his first season with Tennessee after transferring from Charlotte, Milicic is averaging 10.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-10 forward is shooting 47.6% from the field and 31.6% from three-point range. He has also grabbed a career-high 58 rebounds in 28 games.
Meanwhile, Ole Miss has no players listed on the availability report. On Tennessee’s side, sophomore forward J.P. Estrella is the only other player mentioned. Estrella underwent season-ending foot surgery in December to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. Before the injury, he averaged 4.7 points and 10.2 minutes in three games this season.
Estrella set a career-high with five rebounds in Tennessee’s win at Louisville on November 9, adding two points and a block. He opened the season by making both of his field-goal attempts in the Vols’ victory over Gardner-Webb on November 4. As a freshman last season, Estrella appeared in 25 games, including eight of the final 10, totaling 40 points and 20 rebounds in 124 minutes. He shot an impressive 71.4% from the field, ranking second among SEC players with at least 20 attempts and fifth among Division I freshmen. Estrella also tied for third on the team with eight dunks and led the Vols with 2.58 dunks per 40 minutes.
The Scarborough, Maine native played a career-high 15 minutes in Tennessee’s Elite Eight matchup against Purdue last season, making his only field-goal attempt—an alley-oop dunk that tied the game at 58 with 5:42 remaining.
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