Tennessee’s Cam Carr is out 4-6 weeks with a left thumb injury. The sophomore wing suffered the injury in Sunday’s win over Austin Peay.
The Vols open play tonight in the Baha Mar Championship in The Bahamas, where 11th-ranked Vols (4-0) face Virginia (3-0) Thursday night in a 9:30 Eastern Time start on CBS Sports Network. No. 13 Baylor and No. 22 St. John’s are on the other side of the four-team bracket.
Thursday’s losing teams will meet on Friday in a 7 p.m. ET consolation game on CBS Sports Network, with the championship game to follow at 9:30 p.m. ET.
Cam Carr injured left hand in second half against Austin Peay
Carr’s left thumb on Sunday appeared to bend back awkwardly as he was fouled with 7:10 left. He stayed in the game to shoot the free throws that followed, making one of two, then checked out for the rest of the game.
The Vols entered Sundays’ game against Austin Peay already shorthanded, with center JP Estrella sidelined by a lingering foot injury that dates back to the offseason. Estrella did not practice on Tuesday in Knoxville or Wednesday in The Bahamas.
Carr is averaging 4.8 points and 1.5 rebounds in 10.3 minutes per game off the bench so far this season. He had four points and one rebound in nine minutes on Sunday, after scoring a career-high 13 points in 16 minutes against Montana in the 92-57 win on Wednesday.
Estrella, the 6-foot-11, 241-pounder from Scarborough, Maine, is averaging 4.7 points and 2.7 points rebounds in 10.0 minutes per game.
Tennessee entered the season with 11 scholarship players on roster, out of a possible 13, and started Tuesday’s practice at Pratt Pavilion with just eight scholarship players on the floor.
Carr and Estrella were out and transfer guard Chaz Lanier was sidelined for the early portions of practice due to a migraine.
Darlinstone Dubar, the transfer wing from Hofstra, was a full participant in practice after missing the first two weeks of the season due to a personal matter. He began working his way back into practice last week.
“We’re on his timeline,” head coach Rick Barnes said after Tennessee beat Montana last week. “Wherever he feels … is strictly up to him. It’s been important to him that he’s been able to stay around his teammates. They love him. He loves them, but it’s all on his timeline.”
Estrella’s foot issue caused him to miss time in the summer and the preseason, with Barnes first noting in September that it was something the Vols were handling with an abundance of caution.
“We are day to day until we can figure out a plan — a different plan, obviously,” Barnes said on Sunday. “It is just day to day right now.”
