Todd Golden addresses Kowacie Reeves’ play time at PKL
Kowacie Reeves and the Florida Gators men’s basketball team traveled to Portland over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to play in the Phil Knight Legacy tournament.
The Gators finished No. 6 of the eight teams who attended the event with a 1-2 record on the weekend. Their record now stands at 4-3 on the season.
Kowacie Reeves, who began the season as a starter for UF, did not play in two of the three games this weekend. Both games he missed happened to be the two the Gators lost (Xavier and West Virginia).
This quickly became the story of the event for Florida basketball.
First, it was against Xavier on Thanksgiving Day, which ended Florida’s chances of winning the tournament. The Gators shot 33.3% from 3-point range in the loss. Reeves has shot 44.4% from deep this season.
It was reported during the game by ESPN that Reeves was not playing due to a coach’s decision.
The true sophomore played 8 minutes in UF’s 81-68 win over Oregon State, adding 2 points and 2 rebounds.
On Sunday, Reeves did not play in Florida’s fifth-place game loss to West Virginia. The Gators lost that matchup by 29 points.
Golden puts an end to rumors
UF head coach Todd Golden addressed the situation Tuesday.
“I did a bad job this past week, and a lot of ways I need to be better,” Golden said. “I thought, you know, speaking about Kowacie specifically, definitely nothing disciplinary; I thought we caught a good rhythm in the Florida State game. Trey has been playing really well, and Trey kind of took on that role….”
“I think, again, I need to do a better job of managing rotations, you know. ‘Wacie 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. It just kind of happened and he’ll be back out there tomorrow night.”
Golden had high praise for the way Reeves handled the situation throughout the weekend while the Gators were trying to make a run.
“He was disappointed, obviously, as any competitor would be. I thought, Kowacie’s a great young man. I thought he did a relatively good job of not allowing it to affect others for the most part. And the message for him is keep digging, keep going. We firmly believe he’ll be an impactful piece for our program, you know, moving forward.”
The Gators face FAMU at home on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN+.
Stay tuned to Gators Online.
