What a difference a year has made for J.P. Estrella.
The towering redshirt sophomore for the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team has played his way into the starting lineup, and his Volunteers have earned a trip to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA basketball tournament.
As the 6-foot-11 forward from Scarborough and his team get ready for a difficult matchup against No. 2 seed Iowa State on Friday night in Chicago, Estrella has already taken a tough road to get back on the court.
The 21-year-old Maine native suffered a season-ending foot injury a year ago and needed surgery. But he has stormed back this season, averaging more than 10 points and five rebounds per game.
And Estrella’s family has been enjoying the ride as he’s back excelling at the highest level of college basketball.
“He had a serious injury last year. He worked really, really, really hard to come back from it,” his mother, Allie Booth Estrella, told the Bangor Daily News on Thursday. “We weren’t sure if he’d come back the same player or not, and he’s come back and hasn’t missed a beat.”
Booth Estrella knows a thing or two about success on the court. She was named Miss Maine Basketball at Kennebunk High School and went on to play at Boston College.
And how does it feel to now watch her son play during March Madness?
“Oh, it’s insane,” Booth Estrella said. “You get all the feels.”
Both she and her husband are longtime and passionate basketball fans, and now they’re watching their son compete in the NCAA tournament, which she called an “amazing, almost surreal” experience.
Estrella and his teammates on the No. 6 seed Tennessee squad will look to keep that experience rolling against Iowa State in Friday night’s 10:10 p.m. Sweet 16 contest. And plenty of folks in his home state will be watching closely.
“My son’s 12 and he’s already begging to stay up tomorrow night to 10:10 to watch the game,” said Kevin Millington, who coached Estrella at South Portland High School.
The Red Riots won the 2022 Class AA state championship in Estrella’s junior year, before he transferred to New Hampshire prep school Brewster Academy for his final high school season.
“He was obviously a super talent,” Millington said about coaching Estrella. “I just finished my 29th year and he’s the only scholarship player I’ve coached, so anytime you have somebody of that talent, it makes things a little easier on a coach. He’s such an easygoing, free-spirited, positive kid. So he just makes practice fun. He gets along really well with everyone and he kind of lightens the mood.”
Estrella isn’t just a big player. He’s also a big personality.
Millington said “the kids would just go crazy” at youth camps when they got to meet him, and the high school coach has seen Estrealla take that same “infectious personality” to Tennessee and to social media.
“He still has that sort of like energy about him that you just kind of wanna be around him,” Millington said.
And while Estrella started off with “god-given stuff” as a member of an already-talented basketball family, Millington said that was far from the only reason he found his way to college basketball.
“His mom was a Division I athlete at BC in basketball, so I think he was kind of born with some talent,” Millington said. “But I think even more so, he worked really, really, really hard. And he’s even working harder now.”
Millington said Estrella’s ability to guard all five different positions on the opposing team is a testament to all of that hard world.
“He always has played with energy. That’s his motivator, and he loves the game of basketball,” his mother added. “And I think I told him once, when the game of basketball becomes a job, it’s time to hang up your sneakers. So if you’re not having fun out there playing the game that you love, you’re never going to get better.”
Estrella scored 14 points and hauled down 10 rebounds for an opening round double-double against Miami of Ohio to start March Madness, and added 10 points and five rebounds in Tennessee’s second round win over Virginia.
“He’s always found joy on the basketball court,” Booth Estrella said about her son. “His teammates have always been his friends that have come to the house, that have spent the night. That’s always been his family and his comfort zone.”
She said he also takes pride in being from Maine and enjoys the support he receives from fellow Mainers. This marks the second straight year that the Pine Tree State has had a player in the mix during March Madness, following Cooper Flagg’s run to the Final Four with Duke last season.
Millington said Flagg deserves every bit of the attention he receives. But the South Portland coach also thinks it has meant less attention on Estrella’s rise from Maine to the national stage.
“This is a first world problem, but I’ve sort of felt bad for J.P.,” Millington said. “He probably, had it been isolated just him, we’d have been talking about him for the last three years. But he’s kind of flown under the radar a little bit. So that’s what makes this tournament even (more) special.”
Booth Estrella pointed out that the connection between the two Maine basketball stars goes back to high school.
“I think it started with, coming out of Covid, Cooper and J.P. had a big scrimmage.
It was Nokomis vs. South Portland. And I think it was the first time people were allowed back in the gym, right? That kind of started it,” she said. “And then now, look at Cooper. He’s out there killing it in the NBA and J.P.’s healthy and starting to make a name for himself in Division I basketball.”
It’s the kind of national prominence that almost never happens for one Maine basketball player, let alone two in back-to-back years.
“So it’s amazing,” Booth Estrella said. “And they’re just Maine boys, right?”
Mulligan said he still texts with Estrella and that the forward came to a South Portland game over Christmas break.
“You think you’ve been coaching a long time and you’ve seen it all, and then you have this experience,” Millington said. “We’re just so proud of him and proud of how hard he’s worked. But I think more importantly, and I know his parents would probably say the same thing, just proud of who he is. He’s such a great ambassador for Maine, for the kids, and you’re really seeing that personality come out.”
It’s been the kind of journey that even those closest to Estrella couldn’t have fully imaged until recently. A few years ago, his parents wouldn’t have thought that this would be the reality today.
“But I’d also tell you, he’s very determined. He’s very strong-willed. He has a no-quit kind of attitude,” Booth Estrella said. “So, does it surprise me that he’s here? No. But if you’d asked me three or five years ago, I would have been like, ‘No way.’”