Florida’s frontcourt depth was meant to be an insurance policy it could wait a year to collect.
With three seniors and a sophomore returning to the fold, it was thought that freshmen like Patric Young, Will Yeguete and Cody Larson would have a season to learn before they were asked to do more than give the starters a quick breather.
But now the Gators’ plans could be changing.
Coach Billy Donovan announced Monday that tonight’s game between No. 16 Florida (3-1) and Florida Atlantic (3-2) at 7 in the O’Connell Center could potentially be the last senior Vernon Macklin plays in before taking an extended break to rest his injured right knee.
“He’s full-go in practice and to play, but he’s dealing with pretty significant pain and probably doesn’t have the same explosion he normally would have,” Donovan said. “He’s certainly physically not himself with the way he’s moving and running, and he looks like he’s hobbled a little bit.”
Although Macklin has played in every game this season and is expected to go against FAU, he has been severely limited in practice the last two weeks by a combination of tendinitis, bone spurs and chondromalacia, which is when the kneecap grinds against nearby bones due to a cartilage issue.
Even though Macklin said his knee felt fine after Sunday’s win against Morehead State, Donovan said the team will consider giving him a break for two weeks to a month if that could reasonably be expected to truly fix the problem.
To this point, the decision to continue to use Macklin has been driven more than anything by a lack of knowledge about the injury, as it is unclear whether rest would even help.
“Because we’ve had so many games in such a short period of time in practice and everything else, we haven’t really had a chance to calm it down,” Donovan said. “That’s what I want to find out — what would rest really do for him and how much rest would be sufficient enough that you’d say, ‘OK, we’re going to see some drastic changes.’”
Macklin, Donovan, team trainers and team doctors will likely be meeting this week to discuss possible solutions. But Donovan has already all but ruled out an invasive procedure.
“He doesn’t need surgery,” Donovan said. “If he does do that, there’s no guarantee he’s going to have a massive improvement.”
Donovan said possible replacements would include freshman Patric Young and sophomore Erik Murphy, who got his first career start against North Carolina A&T.
One player not currently under consideration is freshman Cody Larson, who will not enter a game unless it is absolutely necessary, as he and Donovan consider the possibility of a redshirt.
