Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. returns in second half after suffering apparent ankle injury vs. Tennessee

UPDATE: Walter Clayton Jr. will attempt to give it a go in the second half, according to a UF spokesperson. The initial story is below: 

The No. 5-ranked Florida Gators have been fortunate from an injury standpoint throughout the first 20 games of the 2024-25 regular season, yet UF’s luck took a turn for the worst in the first half of Saturday’s contest at Tennessee. 

Facing an under-manned Volunteers team playing without standout guard Zakai Zeigler and forward Igor Milicic Jr., the Gators found themselves in a tight contest as the first half neared its conclusion, with leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr. accounting for 10 points to lead all scorers. 

However, the senior guard had to be helped to the locker room after suffering an apparent ankle injury with 1:07 remaining in the first half. Clayton appeared to be in considerable pain as he was helped to Florida’s bench before departing for the locker room. 

Having led by four midway through the first half, the Gators entered the locker room trailing to the Vols, 24-21. 

Clayton, a Lake Wales native who spent his first two seasons of collegiate basketball at Iona, needs just two points to join UF’s 1,000-point club. A week ago, Will Richard’s game-winning shot with 4.8 seconds left in regulation at South Carolina gave him his 1,000th point as a Gator.

Ahead of UF’s contest at Tennessee, third-year Florida head coach Todd Golden discussed the potency of the Gators’ backcourt, saying their success was aided by the play of Florida’s frontcourt. 

“Our bigs, they probably don’t get enough credit for how good we are offensively, because obviously Walter is such an efficient scorer, Alijah’s been so good for us and Will has really taken it up a notch, right? Those three, and Denzel (Aberdeen) obviously. I mean, he’s been great the majority of the year as well. And those guys have the ball in their hands a lot, they make a lot of plays and they deserve a lot of the credit. But I think we probably have the easiest frontcourt in America to play with, with the way we play, three out, two in, obviously having two big guys on the floor, it’s not easy to do and to be able to be smooth offensively the way we are, Condo (Alex Condon), Tommy (Haugh), Sam (Alexis), even Rueben (Chinyelu), they deserve a lot of credit for the way we move the ball, and kind of get to the second and third side offensively and what you obviously do a great job of recognizing and realizing is how effective our bigs are carving out space for our guards in the paint, in and around the rim and a lot of those two-point field goals,” Golden said. “Our guards shoot an incredible number from two, their two-point field goal percentage is just elite, I mean it’s just absurd and a big part of it is when they get in there and they’re finishing around the rim, our bigs are taking the rim pressure away, with their bodies and their physicality.”