GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Kerry Blackshear is still questionable for Florida's SEC Tournament opener.
The Gators senior sprained his wrist in Florida's loss to Kentucky over the weekend and did not play in the second half, despite trying to. According to Gators head coach Mike White, Blackshear's X-rays "were negative" which is decent news.
He did not practice on Tuesday.
"[Assistant Director of Sports Health] Duke [Werner] told me, [his wrist is] in some kind of splint. He hasn’t even attempted to grab a basketball.”
So now White and company are in a holding pattern.
"It’ll be a pain-tolerance, flexibility type factor, I’m assuming," said White about the Orlando native's status. "Won’t go today. I guess we’ll see tomorrow [Wednesday]. Questionable Thursday.”
Blackshear is fourth in the SEC in rebounds with an average of 7.8 boards per game. grabbing an average of 7.8 per game. He also averaged 12.8 points per game and recorded eight double-doubles this year.
He recently was named onto the All-SEC second team on Tuesday.
A lot of Florida's offense goes through Blackshear and the Gators will need to adjust if he is unable to go.
"You’re so less versatile offensively," said White. "The stuff we’re best at offensively is with KJ on the floor. Period. We play through him. On the elbows, at the top of the key, in the slots, on the blocks, he scores it, he drives it, he draws fouls, he passes it - arguably our best decision maker. Definitely our most vocal offensive player as well - directing traffic.
"It’s different when he is out. We’re not as effective offensively, not as effective protecting our glass and still a work in progress offensively when he is out."
Blackshear is not only an asset on the court due to his talent but also his leadership.
“He comes every day, great attitude. Everything we’ve asked him to do he tries to do to the best of his ability," said White. "He’s tried to lead. He’s very vocal in practice. When he gets out of character with emotion - ‘I was open. Hey man, I got to have the ball’ - he’ll bounce right back. ‘That’s on me. I got to handle myself better.’ You know what I mean? He’s been a very good influence that way with regard to maturity, how he handles when he’s not perfect. Again, it’s been a good example for our young guys.”
"Everyone else is going to have to step up and play at a higher level," said freshman Scottie Lewis. "We’ll be losing one of our best scorers and best playmakers. In general for our team, it is obviously a big loss, so guys like Andrew [Nembhard], myself, pretty much everyone, especially Keyontae [Johnson], are going to have to step up and play at a high level. We have to be able to collectively do the job that KJ would do for us.”
The Gators will also look to Dontay Bassett, Omar Payne and Jason Jitoboh to fill in the hole left behind.
“It’ll be those three guys competing," said White. "We’ll evaluate it, literally, one practice at a time and see where we are during film sessions, based on the feel that we get about who may be locked in more or who will be ready for that fight that is coming to us in that first opportunity. It may also come down to the matchup, based on who we play."
"I’m real confident for the bigs to step up for us," said Keyontae Johnson. "They’ve been in the situation before, in Charleston when KJ got ejected out the game and one of the bigs came off the bench and helped us blow the lead off, so I feel like just the next man up. Coach White already prepared us, he said during a tournament time a lot of people they’ll play a lot this game or play a lot throughout the tournament. So I feel like whoever step up is going to be ready for it.”
Florida is set to start post season play on Thursday at the SEC Tournament. The Gators will face either Ole Miss or Georgia.
