PHILADELPHIA — J.P. Estrella didn’t hear his mom talk about Tennessee for the first 17 years of his life.
It was always Boston College this, Boston College that as Allie Estrella talked about her alma mater and college basketball career.
That changed with one conversation.
Former Tennessee basketball assistant coach Rod Clark called in December 2021 and offered Estrella a scholarship to play at Tennessee.
Allie popped with joy and suddenly it was Tennessee this, Tennessee that.
“The first thing I said to him was, ‘We are going to a game,’ ” Allie said. “I was like, ‘You have to see this place, J.P. It is like nothing else.’ ”
Estrella’s path to Tennessee is rooted in the life his mother lived before he was born. Allie’s love for Pat Summitt’s Lady Vols and a 1999 NCAA Tournament game at Thompson-Boling Arena sparked Estrella toward the Vols 23 years later and landed Rick Barnes one of the best forwards in his Tennessee tenure.
Why Allie Estrella wanted to play for the Lady Vols, Pat Summitt
Allie Estrella was Allison Booth in the 1990s — and she was a superstar basketball player.
Essentially every program in the country took notice of the 6-foot-4 forward from Kennebunk High School in Maine. The mailbox burst with letters. The phone rang at all times to the point the Booths would unplug it for a reprieve to watch movies.
The Lady Vols held her attention.
“You watch Pat Summitt and you are like, ‘Who else do you want to play for?’ ” Allie said. “I wanted to play for Pat Summitt. That was all you watched as a kid and all you watched on TV because she was winning every year.”
The Lady Vols were the standard in Allie’s eyes. Summitt won big and shaped women’s basketball. The program’s culture stood out with winning on and off the court. The players played hard, the fans were rabid and everything worked.
There was a problem, though.
The Lady Vols never offered Allie an opportunity to play for Tennessee, the lone power program to pass on the 1995 Miss Maine Basketball.
Allie made a rule in her recruitment to filter through the programs: If a program did not send a handwritten letter, she ruled them out from the process.
“Everyone was sending the typed letters,” Allie said. “I got a letter from Pat Summitt, but it was typed. I always thought if they took the time to handwrite it, it meant a little bit more. That is how I knocked down my list.”
Allie chose to stay close to home in 1995. She picked Boston College, where her parents could see her play regularly. She averaged 5.7 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in three seasons at BC. She missed her senior season with a knee injury, which ended with a fateful trip to Knoxville.
The Eagles lost to Summitt and the Lady Vols 89-62 in the second round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament, giving her a look at the program she wished she could have played for.
“I would have ended my recruitment if she had called me and said, ‘Do you want to come here and play?’” Allie said. “I would have said, ‘I am coming.’”
J.P. Estrella’s first visit to Tennessee was a ‘mother-son trip’
Estrella got the call his mom never did when Clark rang him — and Allie responded how she would have had she received it.
The Estrellas were going to visit and there was no question about it.
“That was one of the main reasons I came to visit — because of her really,” Estrella said.
Allie unleashed her memories of Tennessee, Summitt and Thompson-Boling Arena. She told Estrella about how the arena had all orange seats when she was there. She remembered birds flying around the concourse and people shooting at them with BB guns.
She raved about the environment and everything else she could think of until they visited in February 2022 for Tennessee’s game against Vanderbilt.
“It was a mother-son trip,” Allie said.
Allie was the more excited one initially. She wanted to see the Lady Vols’ trophies and they took a picture with the Summitt statue. Admittedly, Allie did not know how good Barnes’ program was. She just wanted to visit Tennessee again.
“It was cool because I didn’t know much about Tennessee,” Estrella said. “Her reacting that type of way was like, ‘Oh, they must be pretty good.’ I figured I should go see what was going on and it turned out to be great.”
Estrella caught onto his mom’s delight then found his own.
He loved the Tennessee coaches and was addicted to watching the practices and games. Estrella struggled to stay locked in on visits at most schools, but Tennessee captivated him. He begged his mom to stay for five more minutes then five more on his first visit.
“I would have to tell him we would miss our flights,” Allie said. “He always said that would be OK.”
J.P. Estrella is living out his mom’s dream at Tennessee
Allie had a question for Estrella when he got the Tennessee offer: How did he get the one offer that she wanted and didn’t get?
He quipped that he is just that good.
“He loves to say, ‘Well, this is where my mom wanted to go but she never got an offer,’” Allie said.
Estrella’s offer list exploded before his senior season with the likes of Duke and Kansas courting the Brewster Academy standout. But the Vols kept his interest as he watched how they played and how they used their forwards.
Allie refrained from telling Estrella that Tennessee was her preferred choice for him. She wanted him to find his place like she found hers at Boston College.
He made his decision in September. He told Allie and his father, Mark, he was choosing Tennessee one night after dinner then left the room.
“I heard her and my dad talking like, ‘Yes!’ ” Estrella said.
The past three years have been much of the same emotion.
Allie is living our a dream through her son, who is averaging 10.2 points and 5.4 rebounds before the No. 6 seed Vols (23-11) face No. 3 seed Virginia (30-5) on Sunday (6:10 p.m. ET, TNT) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
She is a constant presence in Knoxville and makes the most of the trips, attending Lady Vols games and other Tennessee sports. She also loves watching her son enjoy being a Vol, having fun in games and with his teammates.
Estrella does love being a Vol, but he also knows Allie loves it plenty as well.
He relishes the opportunity to give his mother the gift of a dream that started more than 30 years ago — and it’s safe to say he knows Allie will never stop talking about Tennessee again.
“She kind of feels like she is part of it now, which I feel good about,” Estrella said. “There are still times when I tell her, ‘Hey, you remember how you didn’t get to play here right?’ It is just playful banter between mom and son. She lives in what I am doing right now.”