In the coming weeks, there might be a game when you forget he is gone.
It’ll happen on one of those nights when Florida — the Southeastern Conference’s leader in six offensive categories — is pushing 84 points. The Gators will live up to their run-and-gun billing to shoot over 40 percent from three like they have done in half of their 28 games this season.
You probably won’t even look down at the boxscore to see which team had more rebounds or steals. Why bother? Florida wins by an average of 20 points when it shoots that well.
Those are the moments and results UF fans can cling to.
Because in the nine wins and five losses the Gators have shot below 40 percent on 3-pointers, they have needed Will Yeguete.
In those 14 games, eight times Yeguete has come off the bench and either led Florida in rebounding or had the second-most boards.
But he won’t be running out onto the court anytime soon. Yeguete, who hauls in a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game, had season-ending surgery on his broken left foot this morning, which will require at least six weeks to heal.
The injury is as tragic for Yeguete’s season as it is untimely for the Gators’.
When the NCAA Tournament rolls around — now just three weeks away — UF will be playing the kind of opponents that historically hassle shooters. Instead of simply out-shooting its competition, Florida will have to win a low-scoring game through rebounding and sound defense.
In 11 games this year against tournament-caliber, RPI top-100 teams, the Gators have shot well below their season average at 37.5 percent from behind the arc.
While a concussion kept Yeguete out of one RPI top-100 matchup, he led the Gators in rebounding four times during the remaining 10 games.
Florida has emerged from those big games with just three losses in large part because of what Yeguete brings on the defensive side of the ball and at the front of UF’s press.
His 6-foot-7 frame provided the perfect trap to slow down opposing guards, leading to 31 steals this season — the second-most of any Florida player.
Though Yeguete is primarily Florida’s sixth man and an underwhelming offensive player at 4.4 points per game, he’s a far cry from being the foreign guy who played the fewest minutes of any scholarship player last season.
His importance to the team can’t be overstated
With just three regular-season games and the SEC Tournament left before The Big Dance, the Gators will have to find a way to guard elite big men like Kentucky’s Anthony Davis and Vanderbilt’s Festus Ezeli without Yeguete in the rotation.
While those players have the opportunity to punish Florida on the court, missing Yeguete should also hurt the Gators in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament committee.
UF is a lock for the tournament but will be a different team without Yeguete’s toughness off the bench down the stretch.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the Gators’ season is lost, but Florida fans need to be prepared to re-adjust expectations of what this team can do going forward.
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
