Rick Barnes gives update on status of Nate Ament for Tennessee-Vanderbilt showdown ...Middle East

Rick Barnes provided the latest update on star freshman forward Nate Ament on the eve of Tennessee‘s showdown with SEC rival Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon.

The matchup of ranked teams in Knoxville will feature a lot of star power, and if the 6-foot-10 Ament were completely healthy, he would absolutely be part of that star power in the 2 p.m. ET tipoff on ESPN. But the big problem for the Volunteers is that their big man isn’t healthy after injuring his ankle in last Saturday’s home loss against Alabama.

That ankle injury forced Ament to miss the first game of his collegiate career on Tuesday night at South Carolina. The 23rd-ranked Vols still cruised to a 78-59 victory without the services of Ament, but now here comes a stiffer challenge on Saturday when the 24th-ranked Commodores invade Knoxville.

Getting Ament back on the court for its regular-season finale to beat its bitter in-state rival and build momentum for next week’s SEC Tournament would be ideal for Tennessee. But Barnes has been around long enough to know that injury situations aren’t often ideal, and on Friday he revealed to reporters that Ament hasn’t practiced this week.

Ament’s status for Saturday’s showdown remains in question, although Barners did tell reporters on Friday that Ament would be playing if it were up to him. It’s not up to Barnes though, so that means that Tennessee might be gunning for the season sweep of Vandy minus its second-leading scorer and top rebounder.

Making quite a mark in his 29 games played this season, Ament is averaging 17.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists. That’s a lot of production that would be missing on Saturday as the Volunteers try to build more momentum going into next week’s SEC Tournament.

Here is how Kalshi breaks down the upcoming SEC Tournament, with the final weekend of the regular season approaching:

Prediction Markets Men's SEC Basketball Tournament Winner Learn more about Prediction Markets Kalshi Florida 59% Vanderbilt 24% Tennessee 19% Arkansas 17% Kentucky 15% Alabama 14% Texas A&M 9% Georgia 6% Auburn 4% Missouri 3% Predict

Rick Barnes gives update on status of Nate Ament for Tennessee-Vanderbilt showdown Saturday Down South.

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