Tobias Harris Cleared By UT Medical Staff

Carolina Kat Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:37 am

Tobias Harris cleared by UT medical staff

Freshman should be ready for workouts

By Mike Griffith
govolsxtra.com

Posted August 4, 2010 at 9:27 p.m.

Tobias Harris is off and running for the Tennessee men's basketball team, quite literally.

Harris, who broke the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot in the McDonald's All-American High School all-star game on March 31, has been cleared by the UT medical staff and is back to running and jumping at full capacity.

"He's more than 12 weeks out from the injury, and he's done a ton of rehabilitation work here,'' said senior associate athletic trainer Chad Newman. "But his doctor in New York will have final say. We've been careful; we haven't let him scrimmage.

There's no point in pushing it - it's a long season.''

Harris, who has been in Knoxville since the start of the second term of summer school on July 8, will return to his home in New York prior to the start of fall classes. Harris is expected to be cleared by the doctor who saw him after he suffered the injury and be ready to compete in individual workouts at UT starting on Aug. 18.

"He's been running full speed, and him and Jordan (McRae) have done a lot of shooting alone,'' Newman said. "Tobias is an early riser who likes to get to work. He'd come see me for treatment at 8 a.m., and that was after him and Jordan had been shooting in the morning, if that tells you anything about the kind of kid he is.''

The 6-foot-8 Harris was rated the top power forward in the nation after his standout season at Half Hollow Hills West High School in Dix Hills, N.Y., last season. He's projected to start at power forward for the Vols, helping to fill the void left by the departure of seniors Wayne Chism, Tyler Smith and J.P. Prince.

Kenny Hall, a 6-foot-9 sophomore post/forward, also is on the mend after having a bone fragment removed from his foot on July 23.

"We expect Kenny to be out of his (protective) boot by the end of this week,'' Newman said. "He was able to play through the (Pilot) Rocky Top League season with it, so it wasn't too serious.

"He'll be pretty close to 100 percent by the time we start individual workouts.''