Florida expected a shorthanded frontcourt in Saturday’s game against Mississippi State. On Friday, junior forward Will Yeguete underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove bone chips in his right knee, which will sideline him for 4-6 weeks.
Still, the Gators expected to have the same starting lineup.
But after lacking energy in Thursday and Friday’s practice, Scottie Wilbekin was held out of the starting lineup and Michael Frazier II took his place.
“It wasn’t a bad attitude, it wasn’t that he wasn’t trying, it wasn’t like he quit; it was nothing like that,” coach Billy Donovan said.
“(He was) just not his normal Scottie Wilbekin self in practice (on Thursday). And it continued on Friday. I just told him, ‘Listen, we’re coming off a tough loss against Arkansas, we need energy, we need passion, and if you’re not going to play with passion, we’re going to start someone else.’ … It’s more me making that decision, because I hold Scottie Wilbekin in such a higher regard as it relates to those kind of things.”
Although Donovan wanted to send a message to Wilbekin, the junior guard only sat for the first 2:39 and ended up registering a team-high 33 minutes.
Still, Wilbekin learned his lesson.
During Florida’s 78-64 win against Ole Miss on Feb. 2 and its 80-69 loss to Arkansas on Tuesday, Wilbekin shot the ball 30 times and only recorded 11 assists. Prior to those games, Wilbekin only averaged 7.1 shots per game.
But in the No. 2 Gators’ (19-3, 9-1 Southeastern Conference) 83-58 win against the Bulldogs (7-15, 2-8 SEC) on Saturday, Wilbekin only put up four shots and dished out seven assists.
“Scottie is having an unbelievable year,” Donovan said. “He’s played really, really well, and he’s done really good things for our team. I felt like coming out of the Arkansas game, he needed to understand that there were things that he needed to do for our team. … I kind of was on him about just making some better decisions and getting us in and out of offense in a difficult place, on the road.”
While Wilbekin was benched, Frazier picked up his first career start at Florida.
Frazier recorded 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting, six rebounds, three assists and a steal to energize the Gators in Wilbekin and Yeguete’s absence.
With 14:06 left in the first half, Frazier started Florida’s early 19-5 run with a three-pointer to put the Gators up 10-5. In the next two minutes, Frazier picked up two more threes, a rebound, a steal and an assist to help widen UF’s lead to 18-10.
“I just try to come in and provide energy for the team however I can do that,” Frazier said.
Although the Gators had another dominant double-digit win against the Bulldogs on Saturday, Donovan believes Florida needs to improve its defense before hosting Kentucky on Tuesday.
“I still think we need to get better (defensively),” Donovan said. “Anytime you lose a guy like Will Yeguete, your defense is going to be different. … We’ve got to get even more focused defensively than we’ve been.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Junior Scottie Wilbekin (5) attempts a layup during UF’s 83-58 victory against Mississippi State on Saturday in the O’Connell Center. Freshman Michael Frazier II replaced Wilbekin in the starting lineup because coach Billy Donovan said Wilbekin lacked energy in practice.
