Tennessee forward JP Estrella still feels like a kid when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. The difference now is he gets to live it.
As the team prepared to leave for Philadelphia, PA it brought him back to his childhood.
As the Vols prepare for the first round, he finds himself balancing preparation with the same excitement he felt growing up filling out brackets with his family.
“Oh, definitely,” Estrella said. “When I was a kid, me and my mom, my dad, my brother, we’d make the brackets and whoever won that year got to pick where we going to dinner or whatever. So, we used to have fun with it all the time.”
That tradition never ended with him having the winning bracket.
“No, my brother was really good at it. My mom was really good at it, my dad was good at it, and I wasn’t,” he said, smiling.
Now, Estrella is focused less on predictions and more on performance. Tennessee will face Miami of Ohio on Friday.
“I guess we’re just focusing mainly on ourselves right now until we figure out who we’re playing,” Estrella said. “We’re just super excited about just being in this tournament.”
That excitement extends to watching games unfold.
“Absolutely. Yeah, I can’t wait,” he said. “Watching March Madness games, kind of getting that vibe again of it’s March again.”
The stakes, however, are far different from the regular season. Estrella pointed to the tournament’s defining pressure.
“The intensity I feel like is definitely a huge difference because everyone’s thinking win or go home,” he said.
That reality carries extra motivation for Estrella, who did not play in last year’s tournament due to a season-ending surgery.
“I’m super excited about it,” he said. “I didn’t get to play last year, so I’m definitely coming into this year super excited, super pumped up, and ready to go.”
Watching from the sidelines also left a lasting impression, particularly after Tennessee’s exit.
“Seeing how we lost last year, I don’t want to feel that again,” he said.
To avoid that outcome, Estrella emphasized preparation and accountability.
“Making sure that everybody’s fully locked in,” he said. “Making sure that we’re super prepared … making sure everyone’s doing stuff to make sure that their bodies are feeling good and refreshed every single day.”
For Tennessee’s frontcourt, the message is simple.
“I think just staying physical,” Estrella said. “If we just do our jobs, I feel like we’re going to be okay.”
As the Volunteers wait to learn their opponent, Estrella believes the extra time to focus internally is valuable.
“We really got after it,” he said of recent practices.
Even with the heightened pressure, Estrella’s approach remains grounded in both discipline and joy. The same excitement that once centered around family brackets now fuels his preparation on college basketball’s biggest stage.
“It’s awesome,” he said.
The Vols and RedHawks square off Friday at 4:25 p.m..
