The Vols’ star freshman is pushing through a painful high ankle sprain and knee injury in March Madness, refusing to sit out despite being far from fully healthy
Tennessee’s most important freshman is hurting — and he does not care. Nate Ament, the Volunteers’ All-SEC forward who averages 17 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game, is pushing through a combination of injuries that have been nagging him for nearly a month, and neither he nor his coach is willing to consider holding him out of Sunday’s Round of 32 matchup against Virginia.
The injuries stem from back-to-back blows in late February. Ament suffered a high ankle sprain against Missouri on Feb. 24 and then hurt his knee in the following game against Alabama on Feb. 28. He missed the final two regular season games entirely as a result, and when he returned for Tennessee’s first-round win over Miami (Ohio), the limitations were visible. He played 18 minutes and did not score.
Will he play and for how long?
Ament has made his intentions clear — he will be on the floor against Virginia. The question surrounding his availability is not whether he plays but how much he plays and how effectively. Head coach Rick Barnes described the injury as a genuine problem and acknowledged that Ament will not be fully healthy until he gets time off at the end of the season. Whether there will be a minutes restriction on Sunday will depend entirely on how he looks and feels as the game develops.
Barnes made no attempt to downplay how much the Volunteers need their freshman forward to be a factor, and Ament clearly understands the weight of the moment. His determination to compete through pain reflects both personal pride and an awareness that Tennessee’s March Madness ceiling is meaningfully higher when he is contributing.
What his performance means for Tennessee
The concern with Ament is not simply that he is injured — it is that a diminished version of him changes what Tennessee can realistically do against Virginia. When healthy, he is the engine of the Volunteers’ offense and their most reliable presence on the glass. A repeat of his scoreless first-round performance would place significant additional pressure on his teammates to compensate.
Barnes and the Tennessee staff will be monitoring him closely from the opening tip, and the coaching decisions around his usage could prove to be one of the defining tactical storylines of Sunday’s game. If Ament finds any semblance of his normal rhythm early, it could open up the floor in ways that make life considerably easier for everyone around him.
For now, one thing is not in question. Ament will be in uniform, and he will compete — because the alternative, in his own words, was never a real option.
Source: USA Today