Georgia could be facing a Parsons-less Florida

Florida looks like it will be without one of its top players when it hosts Georgia on Thursday.

Senior forward Chandler Parsons missed Sunday’s game at LSU and head coach Billy Donovan said Monday he isn’t “overly optimistic” that Parsons will play against the Bulldogs.

Parsons has what Florida has described as a deep thigh bruise. Donovan said the staff will prepare as if Parsons will not play, and if he did it would be “a bonus.”

“Right now I’m not personally overly optimistic that he’ll play,” Donovan said on the weekly SEC teleconference. “I think in his mind he wants to play and will try to play. But the last time he did anything physically was last Friday and couldn’t get anything done at all.”

Donovan added that it was a “unique situation” because of the Gators having a lot of games in a short period of time: The first-place Gators have a Thursday-Saturday-Tuesday setup.

Parsons is Florida’s leading rebounder (7.7 per game) and is averaging 10.8 points a game, fourth on the team. He had 18 points and 12 rebounds in Florida’s double-overtime win over Georgia on Jan. 25.

Georgia head coach Mark Fox said he would prepare as if Parsons is going to play, and then if it turns out he doesn’t, “we’ll adjust accordingly.”

“Obviously yesterday was the first time we were able to see them without him,” Fox said. “He’s a great player, an experienced player, and a versatile player. But they also have a very deep team, an experienced team, that I thought responded well in his absence. We’re going to prepare as if he’s going to play and then if he doesn’t we’ll adjust accordingly.”

Florida still has starter Alex Tyus, as well as sophomore Erik Murphy (a 6-10 sophomore) and freshman Patric Young (a 6-9 freshman.) The latter two saw increased playing time at LSU.

The Florida game is an important one for Georgia, but not a vital one as far as its NCAA tournament chances. The win over Tennessee probably puts Georgia on the safe side of the bubble, at least for now.

Georgia is ranked 37th in the RPI as of Monday. It now has three wins against top 50 teams: Kentucky (16), UAB (32) and Tennessee (33). The Volunteers are also the lowest-ranked team that the Bulldogs have lost to, another reason the Bulldogs are on the right side of the bubble.

Florida (21-5 overall, 10-2 in the SEC) is ranked 13th in the RPI.