The injury bug continues to wreak havoc on the Gators.
Redshirt junior center Damontre Harris (hamstring) and sophomore guard Michael Frazier II (virus) will miss practice for an indefinite amount of time, coach Billy Donovan said Tuesday.
“I don’t know when Frazier actually got sick,” Donovan said. “Damontre has been dealing with some hamstring issues a little bit. Even going back to conditioning and stuff, he’s kind of worked through it. But I think the trainer wanted to pull him out just because he didn’t want to set him back too long. He didn’t practice [Monday].”
Donovan said Frazier had blood work done and the hope is more would be known by today.
Harris has had several setbacks since transferring from South Carolina. He sat out 2012-13 because of NCAA transfer rules but also suffered a torn labrum and battled a sprained ankle and strep throat throughout the course of the season.
Frazier and Harris’ absences hurt the Gators’ practice depth. UF is already missing forward Will Yeguete (knee) and Rutgers transfer guard Eli Carter (leg). Donovan expects Yeguete to return to practice in a few weeks but in a limited capacity.
“I would say Will is further along right now,” Donovan said. “Eli is doing some stuff, non-contact. Anything we’re doing without contact, he’s tried to participate in. But he’s still up in the air where he’s at and how much longer it’s going to take him to get back.
“With Eli and Will being out, we’re basically down to seven guys. There’s been little rest. There’s not been a lot of depth.”
To add to the Gators’ injury woes, the younger Billy Donovan — a redshirt junior transfer out of Division III Catholic University — is practicing with a torn labrum in his right shoulder that he suffered sometime in August or September. The elder Donovan said his son would try to avoid surgery and play through it.
“He’s wearing a protective shoulder brace so it doesn’t get popped out,” the Florida coach said. “He’s still able to play, but I know he’s in some pain there.”
During practice, Donovan has seen his team regress defensively. Fatigue from more time on the court due to a lack of healthy players could be a reason why.
“If there was one disappointing factor — it’s hard for me to say just because we don’t have all of our pieces there — but we are drastically worse defensively than we were a year ago,” Donovan said.
“Just us keeping field-goal percentage defense ... where our numbers are at in relationship to where they were last year and some of the things we are charting, is way, way off right now.”
Follow Landon Watnick on Twitter @LandonWatnick.
Damontre Harris poses during Florida’s basketball media day. Harris will not return to UF in the fall.
