Tennessee basketball has a pair of players on its Friday night injury report ahead of its Saturday afternoon matchup against No. 5 Florida in Knoxville.
Senior point guard Zakai Zeigler is questionable with a knee injury while senior forward Igor Milicic Jr is probable due to illness.
Milicic did not practice for Tennessee basketball on Friday due to the illness while Zeigler did a limited amount of individual work at the start of practice but did not do any team action. Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said Zeigler did not participate in Thursday’s press conference but expressed optimism about his ability to play.
“I just walked in the building and haven’t heard where he’s at,” Barnes said. “My gut feel is, knowing him, that he’ll be ready to play.”
Zeigler drove hard to the basket and fell to the ground while drawing contact and a foul late in the first half on the Kentucky game. He quickly popped up and speedily limped straight past the Tennessee bench and all the way up the tunnel towards the Vols’ locker room.
The senior point guard came back and played the entirety of the second half on Tuesday but didn’t look quite full speed and was not picking up the ball for 94-feet on defense like he normally does.
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Zeigler is Tennessee’s most important player and is averaging 12.3 points, 7.4 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.1 steals in 34 minutes a game so far this season. Milicic is averaging 10.4 points and a team-best 8.1 assists to go with 2.1 assists per game this season.
If Zeigler is unable to go, senior shooting guard Jordan Gainey and freshman combo guard Bishop Boswell will play more minutes. If Milicic is unable to go, super senior forward Darlinstone Dubar will see a major increase in minutes.
Tennessee’s rotation is so small that either being unable to play would be a major blow to the Vols’ chance against No. 5 Florida on Saturday.
The Vols are 4.5-point favorites over Florida according to the FanDuel Sportsbook. The over/under is set at 140.5. Florida routed Tennessee 73-43 in the two teams first meeting earlier this month.
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Tipoff between Tennessee and Florida is at noon ET on Saturday. Tom Hart and Dan Bradshaw are on the call for ESPN.
