Gators reinstate junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith has been reinstated to the Florida basketball team after serving a three-game suspension for violating team rules.
Finney-Smith, the team's second-leading scorer and top rebounder, will be on the floor Saturday when the Gators (13-15, 6-9) take on Tennessee (14-13, 6-9) at the O'Connell Center, as coach Billy Donovan goes for his 500th career victory.
"He's taken care of all his responsibilities and everything we've asked him to do," Donovan said. "I still feel like he needs to understand that when it comes to some of the choices he's made there are other people affected by it. From my perspective, he's got to earn back some trust from our team and show a higher level of commitment, especially being an older guy."
The suspension for Finney-Smith, who's averaging 12.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, was the second of his career -- he sat out the first two regular-season games of the 2013-14 season, also -- and this time the Gators lost two of three games without him. The team also was minus leading scorer and top 3-point shooter Michael Frazier II, and UF's offensive struggles reflected as much.
Florida shot just 35.9 percent from the floor, 25.7 from the 3-point line and averaged just 55 points in the absence of their two best players.
Finney-Smith's return should help those numbers some.
"I apologize to my family, my coaches, my teammates and the university," Finney-Smith said. "I made a mistake and I will learn from it. Hopefully, I can move on."
