After being suspended in June for violating team rules, Scottie Wilbekin has been cleared to participate in Friday’s first practice of the year.
However, coach Billy Donovan said his senior point guard still has more to do to be fully reinstated.
“He has done everything that I could ask of him as a player in terms of taking responsibility and growing,” Donovan said. “He still has some things in front of him before he is fully back on our team, but we will give him the opportunity to practice.”
Until Wilbekin returns, freshman Kasey Hill is expected to run the offense at point guard.
Hill, a McDonald’s All-American at Monteverde Academy, said he expects the speed of the collegiate game will be one of the biggest adjustments, but he added that Wilbekin has helped him with the transition so far.
“I lean on him a lot,” Hill said.
“He’s way more advanced than me (and) he knows a lot more than me. I look up to him. He’s one of the leaders on the team.”
Donovan said he does not know how Hill will respond to the early season pressure, but he said he and the team will need to be patient with a 19-year-old running the offense.
“He’s going to really have to be able to understand there is going to be a lot on him, but I don’t need to overwhelm him, I need to help him,” Donovan said.
“Kasey and I really need to be connected the next month and a half as we get ready to play games.”
Chris Walker not eligible for fall: The five-star forward from Holmes County High is not academically eligible to join the team until the fall semester ends in December. Donovan said he is proud that the 6-foot-10 Walker is doing everything he can academically to become part of the squad.
If the NCAA clears Walker to play following the fall semester, Donovan said he will make on-court adjustments to add Walker into the UF rotation.
“Do you cut down what you’re doing if you have to just to be on floor playing just to make it a little bit more simple for him. We’ll probably have to do that with him being a freshman,” Donovan said.
“If that opportunity presents itself for us, we’ll figure out a way to try to utilize him as best we can.”
Harris and Young to share time on court: Donovan said that when Florida needs more size on the court, Damontre Harris, who sat out last season after transferring from South Carolina, will play center and Patric Young can shift to power forward.
“That would give us a lot of size at the basket if we needed to play that way,” Donovan said. “Damontre brings a different kind of presence because Damontre is much more of a pure shot blocker naturally than Patric is.”
Donovan added that he is concerned that Harris has not grown at a pace he would have liked to see after dealing with the effects of a dislocated shoulder and torn labrum.
But Young, who played center last season, said he expects immediate relief from the 6-foot-10 Harris because of his size.
“It’ll be nice because I’ll play a more natural position for myself,” Young said. “It’ll help lighten the load on the rebounding game, and I know I can count on Damontre defending-wise. He can block a lot of shots. A lot more shots than I can.”
Young was third in the Southeastern Conference last season with a team-leading 58 blocks. He also led the Gators with 6.3 rebounds per game.
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn.
Freshman point guard Kasey Hill poses at Florida basketball's media day on Wednesday.
