Florida coach Billy Donovan announced Wednesday afternoon that starting forward Chris Walker will miss the team's first two games of the regular season, plus one exhibition game, due to an unspecified violation of team rules.
Walker will sit out Florida's games against William & Mary and Miami but return on Nov. 21 for the Gators' third regular-season game against Louisiana-Monroe.
Florida's fourth game of the 2014-15 season will be in the Bahamas at the vaunted Battle 4 Atlantis. The Gators' will open the tournament against Georgetown on Nov. 26. Wisconsin could be next, a day later. The bottom half of the bracket includes two of these four teams as possible opponents: Butler, North Carolina, Oklahoma and UCLA.
From OnlyGators.com, Donovan on Walker:
“He has worked very, very hard in the weight room. I think the biggest thing, his biggest challenge this year, in my opinion, is going to be his ability to manage expectations,” Donovan said.
“He was an unbelievable teammate last year in terms of understanding the fact that he had missed so much of the summer, non-conference [games], and when he came here, he never once complained about playing time. He wanted to do what he could do to help. …
“He has such a long way to go in terms of being reliable, accountable and disciplined. Those would be the three things I would say I don’t have a great grasp on right now, but we’re going to find out.”
Walker, who's projected by some as a lottery pick in next year's draft, missed a semester of play last season due to eligibility hurdles with academics. He averaged 1.9 points and 1.3 rebounds in limited action on a Gators squad that earned the No. 1 overall seed in the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
And now we know academics have impacted the Gators' roster again, as Donovan also announced that Florida freshman guard Brandone Francis will have to sit out the 2014-15 season due to academic restraints. Francis, is a four-star shooting guard, will not practice with the team in fall but could be eliglble to do so in spring if he improves his academic standing.