Florida fans who watched the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament over the holiday weekend may have noticed that sophomore wing [autotag]Kowacie Reeves[/autotag]’ minutes were down significantly.
Reeves played an average of 24 minutes through Florida’s first three contests, but his playing dropped to just 10 minutes against Florida State and he saw just eight minutes on the court during the Gators’ three-game run in Portland, Oregon. Head coach [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] addressed that dropoff on Tuesday and took full responsibility for the situation.
“I did a bad job this past week in a lot of ways,” Golden said when asked about Reeves’ lack of playing time. “I need to be better. Speaking bout Kowacie specifically, definitely nothing disciplinary. I thought we got a good rhythm in the Florida State game. Trey (Bonham) has been playing very well. I think he kind of took on that role.”
Golden admitted that Reeves was understandably disappointed but handled the situation with grace. The first-year head coach maintained that Reeves has a role on the team and that the staff believes he will be an impact player down the road. It’s worth noting that Reeves has cleared his Instagram page of any photos and removed the Gators basketball affiliations from his profile biography.
“Sometimes, it’s not so much about what one individual player is or isn’t doing as opposed to another guy stepping up and playing a little better,” he continued. “I think, again, I need to do a better job managing rotations. ‘Wace got the short end of the stick. That’s on me. He didn’t deserve to not play, but just kind of caught in the moment and it just kind of happened. He’ll be back out there tomorrow night.”
Golden’s reasoning appeared to be genuine, but it’s hard to imagine forgetting to play an experienced SEC athlete that’s put up decent numbers in a Gators uniform. Reeves shows flashes of NBA potential and his one bucket during the tournament was a reverse jam after driving the baseline.
If something else is going on here, it wouldn’t be surprising, but Golden is keeping the media blind for now. Reeves’ playing time against Florida A&M on Wednesday should provide a better idea of what kind of changes Golden has in mind to get his talented wing some more playing time.
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