Mark Fox reveals extent of Turtle Jackson's injury, availability for Tennessee game

Georgia junior guard Turtle Jackson is expected to play in Saturday's game against No. 18 Tennessee.

Jackson strained his knee late during Georgia's 72-69 overtime win over Florida on the road. After forward Yante Maten tied the game up at 59 with a 3-pointer in regulation, Jackson ran to get back on defense. He appeared to slip on the court and fell down awkwardly. Georgia trainers tended to Jackson on the floor before helping him off.

Jackson was unable to play in the overtime period.

"Turtle obviously wasn't allowed to finish the game the other night," Fox said. "He was not allowed to fully participate in practice (Thursday). But we anticipate he will be full-go (in practice Friday) and should play."

Jackson scored three points and posted one rebound in 22 minutes of action against the Gators. For the season, Jackson is averaging 8.8 points and 3.6 assists per game. After posting nine games in double figures during non-conference play, Jackson has only been able to score 10 or more points three times in SEC games.

Against conference opponents, Jackson is averaging 6.5 points per game.

With Jackson sidelined in overtime against Florida, sophomore Tyree Crump handled point guard duties throughout the extra period. Throughout the game, however, Crump enjoyed one of the best games of his career by scoring 13 points with five assists and five rebounds in 26 minutes on the floor. The assist and rebound totals were career bests.

"Tyree has tried to play a couple different positions for us," Fox said. "Learning two spots can be hard for guys. He, I thought, has had an approach that has allowed him to get better and allowed him to continue to improve, really at both positions. He's now able to play both of them and the other night he played the point spot very effectively for us."

While Georgia is coming off of a big win on the road against Florida, it will now face Tennessee at home, in what the program is reporting to be in front of a sell-out crowd. A win over the Volunteers could get Georgia back in the NCAA Tournament bubble conversation, considering that would be two consecutive Quadrant 1 victories.

The strength of the SEC as a conference has been a selling point, with many analysts predicting up to eight or nine teams could make the NCAA Tournament this year.

Fox was complimentary of Tennessee, which is coming off of a 70-67 win over South Carolina Tuesday.

"Tennessee is complete of a team as we've played to date," Fox said. "They don't have flaws. They have interior play, good guard play. They guard you like crazy. They rebound it. They're a terrific basketball team, really, from top to bottom."

While Auburn has shocked a lot of people by being the SEC's top team this season, the Volunteers are easily the biggest surprise in the conference, if not the country. Coming out of this year's preseason SEC Media Day, Tennessee was picked to finish 13th in the conference by participating reporters. Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes, hired before the 2015-16 season, went 15-19 his first season and 16-16 a year ago.

This season, he has turned the Volunteers around with a 19-6 record through 25 games.

"Coach Barnes is a terrific coach," Fox said. "He obviously inherited a program that's obviously had lots of success and he's done a tremendous job. He's an outstanding job and they've got great interest. He's really put together a nice team."

This story was originally published February 16, 2018 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Mark Fox reveals extent of Turtle Jackson's injury, availability for Tennessee game."