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Florida basketball: Mike White reveals if Omar Payne will play vs. Oral Roberts

By Patrick Schmidt

Florida Gators forward Omar Payne (5) leaves the court after being ejected for a flagrant two foul during the second half against the Tennessee Volunteers at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Florida Gators forward Omar Payne (5) leaves the court after being ejected for a flagrant two foul during the second half against the Tennessee Volunteers at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports /
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After sitting out Florida basketball’s Round of 64 win vs. Virginia Tech, Mike White is non-committal to whether he’ll play Omar Payne.

Omar Payne took a seat on the bench for Florida’s opening game in the NCAA Tournament after he was ejected in the SEC Tournament game vs. Tennessee for elbowing John Fulkerson.

The NCAA and SEC didn’t suspend Payne for his actions that left Fulkerson with facial fractures and kept him out of the Vols NCAA Tournament game against Oregon State, a loss that ended their season.

But Florida basketball coach Mike White took matters into his own hands and suspended him vs. Virginia Tech. White’s decision was met with a lot of disdain from Gators fans who didn’t want to run the risk of losing in the NCAA Tournament without Payne. However, just as many fans and rivals commended White for doing what he deemed was right.

Florida basketball not committed to playing Omar Payne just yet

After Florida escaped Virginia Tech in overtime, White was non-committal about whether Payne would be active for the Round of 32 game against Oral Roberts on Sunday evening.

“Oh, we haven’t got there yet,” White said in the postgame press conference. “We didn’t talk about it. It’s an in-house situation leading into this game. I’m not going to talk about it leading into the next one.”

Based on that comment, if Payne plays we’ll know shortly before tip-off if he’ll be active. And if he doesn’t play, we’ll know at the same time. Could the fact the Gators are playing 15-seed Oral Roberts who upset 2-seed Ohio State influence White’s decision to sit Payne at least one more week? He showed he didn’t care about the opponent in the opening round so I don’t think that’ll influence his decision this game. He’ll do what he thinks is right.

After Payne was ejected in the Tennessee game, he apologized for the incident and directly to Fulkerson and the Tennessee basketball program and coaches.

“I’m sorry for what transpired yesterday and deeply regret the incident,” Payne tweeted. “I have nothing but respect for John and Tennessee program. Especially, their support for my brother Keyontae this season. I’ve apologized to John and wanted to also say I’m sorry publicly to him, the Tennessee team and Coach Barnes. I wish them the best on their NCAA tournament run.”

Payne averaged 3.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game this season.

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