The Florida Gators (21-5, 11-2 SEC) suffered a major setback today, as the team announced that junior center John Egbunu will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL.
The news comes a day after the Gators scored a school record for points in an SEC game in a 114-95 victory at Auburn.
“We’re all disappointed for John,” head coach Mike White said. “He’s been playing really well of late, so it’s a tough blow to him and our team. He’s a great young man, and unfortunately injuries are a part of basketball. He’ll be back even stronger.”
Egbunu was averaging 7.8 points per game and 6.6 rebounds per game.
Blake’s Take:
This is just awful news for Egbunu and the Gators.
While Egbunu was the team’s fifth leading scorer, he’s led Florida in rebounding this season. After struggling at times, he’s come on over the past several weeks and notched his first double-double of the season in the win over Texas A&M.
Egbunu gave the Gators a level of physicality in the paint that they needed to make a deep run in March, and without him, it’s going to be an uphill climb.
Florida entered the week at No. 1 in my SEC power rankings, but Egbunu’s injury will make it difficult to stay there with games against South Carolina and Kentucky on the horizon.
Here’s the team’s final five games of the regular season:
- at Mississippi State
- vs. South Carolina
- at Kentucky
- vs. Arkansas
- at Vanderbilt
The lack of depth in the frontcourt is obviously going to be a problem against bigger teams that are physical in the paint. However, the recent play of Canyon Barry and the continued improvement of players like KeVaughn Allen, Devon Robinson, and Kasey Hill will give Florida an opportunity to win games even without Egbunu on the floor.
And the good news for the Gators is that they’re still sitting at No. 9 in the RPI, which is a nice place to be should they experience an initial slide following Egbunu’s injury.
Hopefully Egbunu recovers fully and is able to get back to top form once he returns to the court.
Blake Lovell has worked in sports media for over 10 years. He currently covers SEC football and basketball for various publications.