The preseason has been nothing short of a nightmare for Tennessee and Rick Barnes, with it reaching a low in the 103-64 loss to Duke on Tuesday night. In that defeat, though, panic arrived for plenty of Vols fans when highly touted VCU transfer Terrence Hill Jr. went down with what looked to be a serious injury.
In case you missed it, in the first half of that loss to the Blue Devils in Durham, Hill was driving and landed awkwardly on a Duke player's foot, hurting his ankle. Hill had to be helped off the court and later returned to the bench on crutches. After the game, Barnes was asked about Hill's status, but did nothing to calm the worried Tennessee faithful.
"He turned his ankle," Barnes said Tuesday night via GoVols247's Ben McKee. "He got his foot stepped on. That's what happened."
Other than that, Barnes didn't go into further detail on the injury, saying he didn't have any additional information beyond that. Fast forward to the present time, and no new updates on Hill's status have come in either.
Tennessee fans are waiting for some good Terrence Hill Jr. news to hopefully arrive
If you want to look at a positive here, it'd be that Hill suffered his injury in October and not in March. Still, he's so incredibly important to this team, which is why it'd be a worst-case scenario for the Vols and Barnes if the sharpshooter is forced to miss a ton of time.
Terrence Hill Jr. got banged up on the play and is now being helped off the court. pic.twitter.com/TKhQtWhLzf
— Paige Dauer (@PaigeDauerFDP) October 20, 2026
In the loss to Xavier earlier this month, the first-year Vol was the lone positive in what was also a deflating loss for No. 8 Tennessee. In that 86-70 defeat, Hill led the way with a team-high 22 points. Outside of his performance, nothing else went right for UT against Xavier.
The same can be said for the showing vs. Duke, as Barnes even admitted that he apologized to Jon Scheyer after the final whistle for the Vols not giving the Blue Devils an actual test. This was supposed to be a heavyweight battle for the two sides to get ready for the regular season.
Instead of that happening, Duke cruised to a win, and Barnes was left scratching his head over what continues to go wrong for his group. The Vols have a lot to clean up before the regular-season opener against Wofford arrives on Nov. 3. Unfortunately, it's totally up in the air whether Hill is going to be in uniform for that matchup.
Obviously, Barnes and his staff are not going to want to rush back the 6-2, 185-pounder too soon, which is why even if this ankle injury isn't as bad as it looks, it may take some time for Hill to get back on the hardwood.
If it is pretty serious, however, then no one should expect to see Hill back in the near future. That'd, of course, be a huge blow for Tennessee, as Hill is expected to be one of the main scoring threats for the Vols from start to finish this year. This certainly is not the start to the campaign anyone was ready for.
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