SUNRISE – Any chance of Damontre Harris returning to the Gators is out of the question.
After not practicing with Florida for almost two months, Harris was officially dismissed from the team on Saturday morning, the school announced. The redshirt junior center has been granted permission to transfer to any school of his choice without restrictions.
“He is a good kid. He is not a bad kid,” coach Billy Donovan said. “We’ve gone above and beyond to try and help him. But it was just one of those things where I don’t think he wanted any help. I don’t think that he necessarily made the commitment to want to play. I’m sad that it worked out the way that it did, because he is a good kid. I hope he can find a home somewhere and get himself redirected.”
Harris’ stint at Florida was marred by a slew of setbacks. In October 2012, the South Carolina transfer suffered a torn labrum in practice and missed the majority of his redshirt season. A week after he returned in late February, he suffered a high ankle sprain. On Feb. 20, Harris was arrested for failure to appear in court on a traffic violation.
During Harris' first year with the team, Donovan estimates that the center practiced only 10-12 times.
“I think his behavior at least this year was totally foreign to what we have seen in the past,” Donovan said. “And maybe some of that had to do with the fact that he didn’t have to practice a lot.”
Throughout his career at UF, Harris also struggled with health and conditioning. During his redshirt year, Harris battled strep throat. He never reached full shape when practicing with the team in the preseason and dealt with hamstring issues.
Harris never suited up for the Gators or logged any minutes on the floor this year.
After No. 16 Florida’s 66-49 win against Fresno State on Saturday in Sunrise, Donovan reflected on why both sides parted ways. Much of it had to do with Harris’ inability to handle his daily responsibilities.
“I think the things we were asking him to do were not unreasonable things,” Donovan said.
“I always look at things when guys are doing certain things. My point of reference is, if a guy were acting like this in a job, would he be fired? And the answer is, yes, he’d be fired. I feel like, as a coach, I’ve got a responsibility to these guys to explain to them about being professional, about being on time, about going to class, about holding up your appointments, being where you’re supposed to be, returning your phone calls, those kind of things. And I think this year was so uncharacteristic of things we saw last year.”
But the Gators have found a solution to make up for the 6-foot-10 Harris’ absence in practice. The team welcomed Duke transfer Alex Murphy, a 6-foot-9 forward, to the program on Thursday. He is not eligible to play until December 2014 but will begin practicing with the team next Friday.
“Another body is going to be good,” Donovan said. “From a practice standpoint, the one thing that’s going to be good is, for Alex, is that he can come in and he can play. … We could make him better, and I think he can make our team better.”
Follow Landon Watnick on Twitter @LandonWatnick.
Damontre Harris poses during Florida’s basketball media day. Harris was dismissed from the team on Dec. 21. Billy Donovan said Harris was re-enrolled at UF this semester and has a possibility of returning to the team after this season.
