Tennessee suffered a big loss to its team on Friday when John Fulkerson was knocked out of the game because of a blatant elbow from Florida’s Omar Payne. As the two were heading back up the court, Payne struck Fulkerson in the face with two elbow shots to the face, leaving Fulkerson in visible pain.
It was announced on Saturday morning that Fulkerson would miss the rest of the SEC Tournament due to the injury. In a recorded message on Friday night to Tennessee fans, Fulkerson was sporting a black eye and said he’d be rooting on his team, but that he didn’t know his status for the rest of the week. As he was getting up off the court and heading to the locker room, you could tell he was hurt, while being helped to the back by trainers.
On Sunday night, as Rick Barnes was addressing the media regarding the NCAA Tournament selection, an update was provided on Fulkerson. A Tennessee spokesman said that Fulkerson flew back to Knoxville on Sunday morning with trainer Chad Newman for a procedure that was related to the facial fracture he sustained. It was also announced that Fulkerson would arrive back in Nashville on Sunday night, so he could travel with his team to Indianapolis.
The status for Fulkerson in regards to the NCAA Tournament has yet to be determined, as he also suffered a concussion during the incident on Friday. Tennessee officials said that Fulkerson would be evaluated daily, but gave no timeline for a recovery.
“He’s been great, you can only imagine how much he wants to be out there, if he could, he would,” Barnes said. “He’ll be back tonight and bus with us tomorrow morning. It’s never about him, I’ve said it before that it’s never gonna be about John Fulkerson. He wants his teammates to win and wants to be a part of it. Believe me, nobody is pulling for him to do that more than his teammates, because they love him and want to see him have a chance to be successful because they know how hard he’s worked over his time here”.
Having a procedure done on a Sunday, just five days before the team will take the court to play Oregon State, doesn’t give Fulkerson a lot of time to recover. I would have to think his teammates will do everything in their power to give him more time to recover, which means winning on Friday.
8 Responses
Tennessee fans are waiting to see if Omar Thug Payne will be disciplined by Mike White and our WEAK SEC Comish, Sankey! I suspect nothing happens to the POS because of his color.
I don’t THINK it gas nothing to do with his color, he is a Vol Hater, and did that with intentional meaning, but he Apologized to Fulkerson on phone, and FULKY said it was okay and Thug Payne sounded remorseful… So maybe that’s why ??♂️, but Im as ????, pissed as you an any Vol Fan Base is, that uncalled For and The SEC SHOULD SUSPEND HIM FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE POST SEASON
I am still waiting on a statement of condemnation from some level of college athletics concerning this incident.
Email the SEC Commissioner and give him your thoughts.
Its highly possible that nothing has been done to this thug is because of his color. Had Fulky assulted Payne, you can bet the house that Fulky would have been disciplined by both Barnes and the SEC office and it would have been done the next day.
These actions by Mike White who obviously is a punk as he knew and encouraged the outrageous actions of a criminal and stated “he did not see it, but assumed Omar did something wrong!” Amazing! This thug should be out of school, off the team and prosecuted. I would think Fulkerson’s family should investigate criminal and civil charges against Omar, Mike White for knowing this guy was a criminal and encouraging his actions, and the Universitty of Florida. There are terrible losses for Fulkerson in terms of a potential pro career, and for the University of Tennessee in losses in the SEC tourny and NCAA tourny. I’m sickened by the total lack of reaction by White, the SEC, U of F, and the NCAA. They all say one thing and do nothing. Of course, Omar’s actions did not surprise because I promise you he did not write the apology, a PR professional did. What horrible actions by the SEC, White and Florida.
I’d like to see a rule that if a player is injured and the offending player is ejected from the game that the offending player does not return to play until the injured player does.
Same could be extended to all sports.
This should never have happened, the referees need to keep the game in check.And Omar Payne should face criminal charges.