Florida's Alex Murphy to miss 4-6 weeks with plantar fascia tear

One of the down notes of Florida's exhibition victory over Palm Beach Atlantic on Thursday night was the apparently serious injury suffered by forward Alex Murphy during the game. The fifth-year senior went down after being whistled for an offensive foul in the first half of the game, and had to be carried off the court.

He won't be getting back on one for a while: GatorZone's Chris Harry announced late Friday that Murphy will miss four to six weeks after a Friday MRI revealed a partial tear in his plantar fascia.

Murphy transferred from Duke to Florida in 2013, and played 14.2 minutes per game in 23 games in 2014-15 after becoming eligible midway through the season. He was likely to be one of the first men off the bench for Mike White in his first season as the Gators' head coach, thanks to a rangy frame and a game based on the athleticism necessary to fit in White's press-heavy defensive system.

With him out, it's likely that Dorian Finney-Smith and Devin Robinson will play a much larger share of the available minutes at White's big forward spots, with Justin Leon and Keith Stone perhaps getting more burn than they otherwise would have in their first years in orange and blue. Florida could also go big underneath, pairing likely starting center John Egbunu with lanky Kevarrius Hayes, who would have seemed set to serve as a reserve center.