Myles Stute ruled out with knee injury for South Carolina vs. Florida

Unfortunately, the status quo has not changed for South Carolina wing Myles Stute as news is that he will be out once again for the Gamecocks’ game against Florida.

That report came from Jon Rothstein, who tweeted out the following just ahead of tip-off:

“South Carolina’s Myles Stute (knee) remains OUT for today’s game against Florida, per a school spokesman. Has not played since 2/17. Averages 9 PPG.”

Stute is averaging an even 9.0 points per game on the season but has now been sidelined for several weeks. Against an athletic Gator front-line, his versatility and length would be a nice addition, especially for depth purposes. But as he has since mid-February, Lamont Paris will need to find answers without a key rotation piece.

Myles Stute initially went down with a strained left knee in the Gamecocks’ 64-63 home loss to LSU. But he was fortunate that South Carolina had the entire week off until the following Saturday, so his injury window wasn’t overlapping with as many games as it could have been.

Still, he missed the team’s game at Ole Miss, which South Carolina actually won rather comfortably. Then, the Gamecocks scored a competitive victory at Texas A&M to put themselves in great position for a double-bye and top-four seed in the SEC Tournament. So they’ve had success without him, but Florida, a top-25 opponent, will be the toughest foe yet since Stute went down.

It will certainly be a battle today in Columbia.

Final score predictions for Florida vs. South Carolina

By Barkley Truax

BPI Predicted winner: South Carolina
BPI Predicted point differential: 0.1
BPI Win probability (for South Carolina): 50.7 percent
BPI Matchup Quality: 92.1

ESPN’s BPI is a model designed to provide a statistical comparison between two teams and predict future success. It agrees with Vegas about what to expect from this game. Heading into the game, BPI is projecting a point differential of 0.1 points in South Carolina’s favor. It also gives the Gamecocks a 50.7 percent chance to win the game over the Gators at home.

BPI also gives this game a matchup quality score of 92.1, which ranks No. 4 in quality scores predicted for the day.

KenPom Predicted final score: South Carolina 74, Florida 73
KenPom Win probability (for South Carolina): 55 percent

KenPom is another predictive system for college basketball. It’s designed to show how strong a team is at a given time, without taking factors like injuries into account. For Saturday’s game between Florida and South Carolina, KenPom agrees with BPI and Vegas’ decision to have the Gamecocks take care of the Gators on their home court.