Florida junior forward Will Yeguete has had a tough time this season adapting to a familiar role.
Yeguete was Florida’s jack-of-all trades player off the bench for the Gators last season before going down with a broken foot late February He started UF’s first nine games this season. But in the two games since Yeguete was replaced by Scottie Wilbekin in the starting lineup, the 6-foot-7 forward has struggled. Yeguete had more turnovers (3) than points (0) during UF’s 78-61 win over Air Force on Saturday.
Yeguete also had just 2 points and 3 turnovers in UF’s 67-61 loss to Kansas State. Florida coach Billy Donovan said he’s not looking for scoring from Yeguete, but said he can help the Gators in different ways.
“We gotta get more out of him,” Donovan said. “We’re not getting enough out of Will at all. The energy, the defense, the deflections, the running the floor, kind of being all over the place, we’re just not getting that from him right now.”
With Yeguete struggling, Donovan turned to freshman Michael Frazier II and Casey Prather as other options off the bench against Air Force. Frazier (5 pts) and Prather (9 pts) combined for all 14 of UF’s bench points against the Falcons.
“If we’re not going to get (energy) from (Yeguete), he is limited offensively, whereas Frazier at least stretches the defense a little bit for us,” Donovan said. “But Will has got to go back to being who he’s been here, and when he does that, he changes our team, as does Casey Prather. And I think those two guys have got to embrace their role of being energy, hustle plays, deflections, loose balls, a lot of those things that don’t show up in the stat sheet.”
