UF practices hampered by injuries

With just nine scholarship players, Billy Donovan can't afford to lose any during practice. Which is why on Wednesday he was lamenting the situation the Gators find themselves in.

Freshman forward Alex Tyus has a bruised tailbone he suffered during a fall in practice and has not practiced in three days. Junior guard Walter Hodge has missed the past two days of practice with back spasms.

Both were expected to miss today's practice, UF coach Billy Donovan said.

"We're a little banged up,'' Donovan said. "So taking it (practice) from nine days to seven, it's probably limited us a little bit in all that I would have like to have gotten done. Practice from the players' perspective has been good, but there just hasn't been enough competition. When you've got seven (scholarship) guys, we've had to do a lot of 3-on-3- and 4-on-4.''