Tennessee basketball could be without one of its starters during its trip to Ole Miss.
Vols starting forward Igor Milicic Jr. was listed as probable on Tuesday night's injury report.
He missed Tuesday's practice with an illness.
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Milicic is in his first year with Tennessee and fourth in his college career. He began at Virginia before transferring to Charlotte for two years.
With the Vols, he has started in all 28 games he's appeared in 28 games he has appeared in. His lone missed game was against Florida at home which saw Tennessee win handily without Milicic or Zakai Zeigler.
Milicic is averaging 10.2 points per game on 47.6% shooting from the field and 31.6% on 3-pointers. He is also passing for 2.3 assists per outing.
In his 26.5 minutes per game on the floor, he has also proven to be a strong rebounder. Milicic is reeling in 7.5 boards a night with 2.1 coming on the offensive end.
He has also contributed 0.8 blocks and 0.7 steals per game.
In his three previous outings, Milicic has struggled to see his shot fall. He has scored three, four and five points from most recent to preceding games.
"I donāt think heās pressing. I think he is trying to do what Coach (Rick Barnes) has asked of him," Vols assistant coach Gregg Polinsky said on Tuesday. "You know, Igor has a unique ability at 6-10 to facilitate, and we all know thereās a lot of pressure on Zakai to do that, Igor is trying to alleviate some of that. Coach wants him to do that. So I think what Igorās trying to figure out, weāve all seen him score the ball, thatās something heās always been able to do. But how do I connect? And that was Igorās word yesterday talking to Coach. Like, how do I connect and be productive and help this basketball team scoring, but yet facilitating and being able to play out on the floor and making reads and getting guys shots because thatās a unique thing at his size and skillset that we have not had here. Weāve had a lot of things from different guys, but we havenāt had that on that kind of level. So I think thatās more of it, him trying to figure it out. And again, we gotta remember, like heās been here less than a year, so hopefully heās going to connect it tomorrow night."
Tennessee star guard Chaz Lanier also weighed in on Milicic's recent struggles but provided optimism.
"I feel like he, it may be a little bit of confidence, but I feel like he does have a lot of confidence in what he does," Lanier said. "Heās such a special player. He can shoot the ball and pass the ball and play make. So sometimes he gets caught between a little bit. But we need him to just be him and not overthink anything. Heās definitely, heās getting better and weāre all getting better. So, heās been great. Heās been great."
The Vols' game against the Rebels is set for Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
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