UF officially rules Egbunu out for the season
John Egbunu dunked on Kentucky nine times in a career-high 27-point effort in 2016. Unfortunately for UF and Egbunu, he will miss the rest of this season as he continues to recover from a torn ACL sustained in February of 2017.
The speculation is over. Florida made it official early Friday afternoon at a media session: John Egbunu is out for the season.
The fifth-year senior center tore his ACL in a win at Auburn on Valentine’s Day last season. The optimistic hope was for the big man to return sometime in early January.
However, Egbunu has experienced swelling in the injured knee in the few practices he’s been able to participate in over the past month, including one last week when White said it “started swelling immediately.”
Egbunu could seek a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA, but he’s not going to do so. Instead, he’ll participate in Senior Day on Saturday when UF hosts Kentucky at noon Eastern on CBS.
Egbunu has taken five cortisone shots in an attempt to get back on the court, but he sought a second opinion with Dr. James Andrews last week. Andrews gave him a bone marrow injection that will sideline him for an additional three months.
After playing at South Florida his freshman year, Egbunu transferred to UF and sat out the 2014-15 campaign. As a third-year sophomore in 2015-16, he averaged 11.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots per game.
Before going down at Auburn, Egbunu was averaging 7.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots per game.
Dontay Bassett is ‘out’ vs. UK. The redshirt freshman forward sustained a concussion in Tuesday’s 73-52 win at Alabama. Bassett was just starting to find his groove, posting career-highs in minutes (24), points (12) and rebounds (six) in UF’s 72-66 win over Auburn as a 2.5-point home favorite last Saturday.
Florida has seen the ‘under’ go 8-1 in its past nine games, while Kentucky has seen the ‘over’ hit in four consecutive games. John Calipari’s squad has won four in a row both straight up and against the spread.
Meanwhile, since dropping three in a row both SU and ATS, the Gators have responded with back-to-back victories both SU and ATS. UF won a 66-64 decision as a two-point underdog at Rupp Arena on Jan. 20.
