Frazier back at practice

Florida junior guard Michael Frazier II was back at practice Thursday and should play Saturday when the Gators host Arkansas.

Frazier, UF’s leading scorer at 13.4 point per game, suffered a hip pointer in practice Monday and was questionable going into Tuesday’s game at Alabama. The 6-foot-4 junior guard started and played 32 minutes, but clearly wasn’t himself during UF’s 52-50 win over the Tide. Frazier had as many turnovers (5) as points (5) and had his school-record streak of at least one game with a 3-pointer snapped at 41 games.

Frazer is shooting 39.8 percent from 3-point range with a team-high 49 3-pointers. At 951 career points, Frazier is closing in on becoming the 51st player in UF history to score 1,000 or more points.

– Florida coach Billy Donovan was on the recruiting trail Wednesday, in Fort Lauderdale to watch 2016 6-foot-7 forward Maverick Rowan. A Cardinal Gibbons standout and four-star recruit, Rowan has created quite the buzz since de-committing from Pittsburgh a few months ago. Donovan wasn’t the only major college coach in the stands, also in attendance were North Carolina coach Roy Williams and West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. And Louisville coach Rick Pitino paid Rowan a visit earlier this month. At the Kingdom of the Sun Tournament in Ocala, Rowan scored 20 points earn MVP honors and lead Cardinal Gibbons to the title-clinching win over Deerfield Beach Zion Lutheran. Facing the Rowan-led Cardinal Gibbons team, Zion Lutheran forward and Florida commit Keith Stone had 14 points and 4 rebounds in the title game.

– Donovan was asked on Thursday about sophomore center Chris Walker’s post scoring coming off his 12-point game against Alabama. “We’ve been working with him and trying to help him with some of that stuff,” Donovan said. “His problem, calling it like it is, is when there’s a lot of physical contact, there’s times where he isn’t physically strong enough to finish and make some of those plays where there’s a lot of contact. He’s getting better at it, but I think earlier on where he was able to in games play in space so to speak and jump and run and those kind of things, he has been very effective. When it’s jammed up in the halfcourt and there’s bodies on top of him, sometimes he can get physically overwhelmed. He’s learning how to use his athleticism and his speed in a way in short spaces where he can be a little more effective for us.”

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