Tennessee took the field without starting catcher Evan Russell on Friday night to begin the NCAA Tournament. The lineup card was submitted, and Tennessee’s fifth-year senior was very notably absent.
Tony Vitello didn’t have an update before the game, instead he promised he would address the matter following Tennessee’s game with Alabama State. In the meantime, rumors spread wild on Twitter, even spilling over to an ESPN broadcast. On the Vanderbilt-Oregon State broadcast, ESPN claimed that Russell had failed a drug test and would be suspended for the rest of the season. That’s obviously false.