In the two minutes Will Yeguete spent on the court Saturday, he created havoc.
Twenty-two seconds after first subbing in against Tennessee, Yeguete, complete with his trademark mohawk and a heavily taped right hand, had already stolen an inbounds pass from UT’s Cameron Tatum.
Three Tennessee possessions later, Yeguete, a sophomore forward, elevated to block Jarnell Stoke’s breakaway layup off the backboard.
The O’Connell Center crowd immediately erupted into cheers, not realizing, at first, Yeguete crumpled on the floor.
As quickly as he came into the game and sparked the Gators defensively, Yeguete was gone and heading to the locker room.
“Definite concussion and I would say right now out indefinitely,” UF coach Billy Donovan said. “I think eight-to-10 stitches across his eye. ... He wasn’t even conscious — like wasn’t even awake when I was over there.”
The Gators played the rest of their deflating 75-70 loss without Yeguete.
Donovan said in his postgame press conference that Yeguete failed his concussion test and, on Sunday night, announced he would not play Tuesday at Alabama.
During the next 4:12 following Yeguete’s head-first fall into the stanchion, Tennessee put together a 15-4 run and went on to lead by as many as 17 points in the opening half.
“We were obviously in some dilemmas personnel-wise,” Donovan said. “Patric (Young) played way too many minutes, as did (Erik) Murphy.”
With the Gators giving up 70-plus points in consecutive games for the first time in Southeastern Conference play, losing Yeguete, the team leader at 1.3 steals per game, for an extended period could damage more than the frontcourt’s depth.
Florida’s usually effective full-court press was crippled against Tennessee without the 6-foot-7 Yeguete working the front of the defense.
Needing extra possessions to spark a comeback, the Gators’ pressure only generated four points off turnovers in the second half.
“He hurt from a pressing standpoint,” Donovan said. “We weren’t at our best pressing-wise.”
Yeguete, who has eight steals in his last five games, is the only UF player to crack the top 25 in the conference in steals percentage.
His ability to create a steal on 3.51 percent of his defensive possessions is ranked fifth in the SEC this season, according to Kenpom.com, and is the second-highest Florida has had in the last five years.
Freshman guard Brad Beal, who is 27th in the league in steals percentage, said Yeguete’s absence was also noticed on missed shots.
For the third time in five games, the Gators were out-rebounded, with the Volunteers taking a 36-30 edge on the glass.
Though he is somewhat undersized at his forward position, Yeguete’s offensive and defensive rebounding percentages are Florida’s highest.
“[Rebounding] was real tough, especially when Will went out,” Beal said.
“And we just had Pat and Murph and they got in foul trouble and then we had to put Casey in there. We were real undersized, but at the same time, we have to fight through that.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Florida forward Will Yeguete will miss Tuesday’s game against Alabama after suffering a concussion and serious laceration above his right eye in Saturday’s loss to Tennessee. Yeguete leads UF in rebounding percentage this season.
