PUT UP OR SHUT UP TIME FOR THE GATORS

Florida has reached a point now where the team must decide how they want the rest of the season to play out. The Gators can either mature, learn from their mistakes, improve and fight their way to a high postseason ranking or falter like the 2007-08 team.

Like that squad, Donovan does not believe this year’s group has been “hardened” enough to understand what it takes to win game-in and game-out. He feels Florida struggles with some of the more minor things in games (getting fouled, missing shots) and instead should be worried about being consistently productive no matter what is happening around them.

“Our guys are not hardened enough right now. We have not been hardened. In a certain respect, there’s a lot of similarities – as much as I hate to say this – when Chandler Parsons was here as a freshman. There was not that hardening,” he said. “It took Chandler a couple of years. I’m using him [as an example], but I’d throw in Nick Calathes, [Marreese] Speights, that whole group. Those guys were not hardened.

“They followed two national champions and had no idea and no clue of what went into it. I think these guys are great guys, but we haven’t been hardened enough. Because of our limited depth there a little bit, we need to practice better. We need to be more on edge. We need to take everything to a different level, and we haven’t done that.”

Donovan let the Gators know just that after Saturday’s game by writing “NIT” in big letters on the board in the locker room, something he did mostly as a warning.

“My point on mentioning that to them was nothing more than the fact that there have been teams that have been here – Chandler and those guys started off the season 18-3,” he said. “We’re in a tough stretch for our team. I was using [2007-08] as an example. We’re 7-3 in our league after 10 games. We have six games left. There’s home games and the SEC Tournament.

“I don’t feel like we don’t have the opportunity to go to the NCAA Tournament. I was using it as an example of don’t take for granted what you have in front of you. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We can’t come in and lose every game. I was using it as an example of: Have an understanding and a respect level of how good you think you are.”

How much is this Florida team like the 2007-08 group? Here are just a few figures to keep in mind going forward:

YEGUETE OUT INDEFINITELY (CONCUSSION)
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The Volunteers (13-12, 5-5 SEC) upended the Gators (19-6, 7-3 SEC) with stellar defense and relentless effort on the offensive glass. Tennessee outrebounded Florida 36-30 (12-6 offensively) and also outscored the home team 36-14 in the paint and 17-8 on second chances. The Gators struggled shooting the ball for the second-straight game, connecting on just 42.6 percent of their field goals and 36.7 percent of their attempts from downtown.

Despite donning special Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms and having an excited crowd behind them, Florida got off to an extremely slow start, hitting just four of their first 14 attempts from the field and falling behind 12 points to Tennessee, which used an impressive 15-2 run to jump out to the early lead.

During the Volunteers’ scoring stretch, Gators sophomore forward Will Yeguete went up for a block and fell down onto the court, hitting the top of his head into the stand supporting the basket. After being checked out by trainers, Yeguete left the game and never returned. He had a cut above his right eye, received stitches in the locker room and may have also suffered a concussion.

Yeguete’s injury forced him to become the third Florida player sitting out for the game as redshirt junior guard Mike Rosario (hip pointer) and redshirt freshman F Cody Larson (illness) did not dress for the contest.

Click to expand and read the rest of the Florida-Tennessee game story.

HANDLING ADVERSITY DURING GAMES AN ISSUE

Donovan continues to be pleased with how the Gators rebound from tough losses (When we’ve lost, we’ve come back and we’ve tried to get better.”) but is not nearly as happy with the way Florida handled Kentucky’s onslaught during the game on Tuesday. He believes the team did not respond the same way they did in-game against Ohio State and Syracuse, two contests in which they fought back until the final buzzer.

“You’re going to have some games where you don’t shoot the ball well, and we did not shoot the ball well. Some of it had to do with Kentucky’s defense and some of it had to do with we didn’t make shots,” he said. “The plays that hurt us more than the missed shots – because that’s going to be part of the game, you’re always going to have that – were our turnovers or a bad drive or a blocked shot that gapped them out in transition.”

Donovan continued, “There’s got to be better resiliency in those situations. Everything’s a grind and everything’s a struggle. It’s a lot easier playing [defense] when the ball goes in the basket. For those guys, they probably thought they were playing fairly decently for a while but there’s no question there has to be at tough mental fortitude to move past this and find a way collectively as a group to keep ourselves in the game. That was the thing I was most disappointed about in the game.”

He believes that Florida “got away from focusing” on the little things during the game and was completely disconnected as a team, something that the Gators will have to prevent from happening Saturday if they find themselves down against the Volunteers.

“We have a group of guys that really care that are good kids that want to do well. What happens is you can go into a game – and I think this did happen in the Kentucky game – we went into the game with fractured minds,” he explained.

“What I mean by that is nothing to do with adversity or anything else. We went in there where each guy wanted to do his part and to play well. What happens is you’re playing the game as a group of individuals – not with any bad intentions. You have to have, in that kind of environment against a really good team like that, five guys unified mentally in the game about what is going on.”

HISTORY AND STREAKS
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1 » Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah has had a star-studded last few days. In addition to being introduced along with the rest of his team by comedian Will Ferrell before Wednesday night’s game (“He’s a Scorpio and a horrible dancer,” Ferrell said of Noah), he was also name-dropped during the latest episode of the sitcom Whitney on NBC. Following a Chicago-Philadelphia game last week, Noah met up with champion eater Takeru Kobayashi, a greeting that was captured by his YouTube channel.

2 » Speaking of Noah, the Bulls’ star center told the Chicago Tribune last month that his rough start to the 2011-12 season was in part due to the pressure he felt after signing a five-year, $60 million contract extension in 2010. “Sometimes you feel like because you’re given so much money you’re expected to do things. That’s not the right mentality to have as a player,” he explained. “I have to play my game. I have to have fun out there. If I don’t, I’m not the same player.” Without an offseason to work on some of the kinks in his game, Noah started exceptionally slow, shooting poorly and turning the ball over more often than he should be. Now back into the swing of things, he has posted double-digit points in eight of his last 10 games (including five-straight double-doubles from Jan 23-30). “I’ve always been a player who reacts well to criticism and doubters,” Noah said. “I feel my teammates were always behind me. But I knew as well as anyone how poorly I was playing. And not only wasn’t I playing well, but I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I wasn’t playing loose out there. I was playing tight. In the beginning of the year, I was overthinking a lot. I was going through a lot of things personally. I feel a lot more comfortable now. I have to stop overthinking and just play.”

Click to expand and read two more BITS in this post.

1 » Former Florida Gators forward/center David Lee posted the second triple-double of his career Tuesday night, scoring 25 points (on 9-of-19 shooting) with 11 rebounds and 10 assists for the Golden State Warriors in a heartbreaking loss to Oklahoma City. Lee’s triple-double and Monta Ellis’s career-high 48 points were simply not enough to propel the Warriors to victory. In 21 games this year with Golden State, Lee is already playing better than he did a year ago, averaging 18.7 points (+2.2) and 10.0 rebounds while shooting 50.8 percent from the field.

2 » No. 1 Florida women’s tennis (4-0) swept the South Florida Bulls (3-2) 7-0 on Tuesday, winning their 98th consecutive home match at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville, FL. Junior Allie Will (No. 3), senior Joanna Mather (No. 4) and sophomores Sofie Oyen (No. 34) and Alexandra Cercone (No. 41) each won their singles matches in straight sets while junior Lauren Embree (No. 25) took three sets to win her singles tilt. The No. 10-ranked team of Oyne/Will and No. 15 duo of Embree/Mather each won their doubles matches handily. The Gators will travel to California over the weekend for back-to-back contests on Friday and Sunday against Pepperdine and Stanford. Florida topped Stanford 4-3 for the 2011 NCAA Championship on May 24.

Check our two more BITS (including a video)…after the break!

3 » Two of the Gators’ four current 2013 verbal commitments have been placed on the initial Rivals100 released on Wednesday. Linebacker Daniel McMillian (Jacksonville, FL) and defensive tackle Caleb Brantley (Crescent City, FL) were each given four-star designations by the site and have been ranked at No. 53 overall and No. 82 overall, respectively. McMillian is listed as the No. 10 player both at his position and in the state of Florida, while Brantley is considered the No. 7 defensive tackle and the No. 15 player in the state. You can check out the entire list, for free, by clicking here.

4 » Currently training for the trials for the 2012 London Olympics, former Florida swimmers Ryan Lochte and Conor Dwyer have been working out extensively with Gators assistant director of strength and conditioning “Mad Dog” Matt DeLancey. Below is a video from GatorVision.com showing some of the workouts he is having them do in the rough-and-tumble streets of Gainesville.

Ending a stretch of three games in six days, the No. 7/8 Florida Gators (19-5, 7-2 SEC) fell in their third opportunity to defeat a top-three ranked opponent on the road this season, getting routed 78-58 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY on Tuesday evening by the No. 1/1 Kentucky Wildcats (24-1, 10-0 SEC).

Kentucky extended their home winning streak to 49 games with the blowout of Florida, and the Gators fell to 0-8 all-time against the Wildcats in games when their opponent is ranked as the No. 1 team in the country.

UK outperformed UF on both ends of the court. Kentucky shot 52.7 percent from the field and 60.0 percent from downtown while holding Florida to 34.9 percent on field goals and 22.2 percent on tries from beyond the arc.

Wildcats forwards Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and guard Doron Lamb were dominant throughout the game, scoring 16, 13 and 18 points, respectively. Davis was 8-of-18 from the field with six rebounds, four blocks and two steals, while Kidd-Gilchrist added 13 rebounds and three assists. Lamb dominated the Gators on the perimeter by hitting 4-of-5 of his attempts from beyond the arc.

Click to expand and read the rest of the Florida-Kentucky game story.

Location: Rupp Arena – Lexington, KY [Capacity: 23,500]
Time: 7:00 p.m. (ET)

TV: ESPN/ESPNHD
SiriusXM: 91
Online Video: ESPN3.com
Live Updates: @OnlyGators

Odds: Florida +9; O/U 142.5

HISTORY and STREAKS

» Kentucky leads the all-time series against Florida 90-33, and the Gators are just 13-20 against the Wildcats since Donovan took over the team.
» Florida is 0-7 against Kentucky all-time when the Wildcats are ranked No. 1 in the country; however, all seven of those games were played before Donovan was coach with UK’s most recent victory in such a matchup coming in 1996. Since then the Gators are 2-0 against top-ranked opponents (both wins under Donovan), defeating Duke in 2000 and Ohio State in 2007 (for the national title).
» Kentucky is 65-2 all-time at home as the No. 1 ranked team in the AP poll.
» Calipari is one of three coaches (Frank McGuire) to lead three different schools to No. 1 rankings; he has accomplished that feat in five total seasons.
» UF’s seven-game winning streak is their longest since 2009-10 (eight games) and lengthiest in-conference streak since 2006-07 (13 games). UK, on the other hand, has a 16-game winning streak including a number of blowout victories.
» All five of Florida’s normal starters are averaging double figures in scoring.
» The Gators have made 10+ three-pointers in 16 of 23 games this year, a season-high mark under Donovan.
» Florida has made a three in 674 consecutive games dating back to Jan. 1992.
» UF has posted a positive assist-to-turnover margin in 16-of-19 victories but has put forth a negative ratio in that category in all four of their losses.
» The Gators are 284-37 since 1988-89 when holding opponents under 70 points.
» Florida is one victory away from winning 20+ games for the 14th consecutive season, which is currently the longest active streak in the SEC and fifth-longest nationally.
» Kentucky holds a 48-game home winning streak at Rupp Arena, the longest such home winning streak in the nation.
» The Wildcats lead the SEC in rebounding margin (+7.8 per game).
» Kentucky has more wins (2,075) than any other NCAA team – ever.
» The Wildcats also have five players averaging double figures.
» Kentucky is 68-1 under Calipari when holding an opponent to 67 points or fewer.
» The Wildcats’ defense has been outstanding recently as UK has held their last four opponents to an average of 47.5 points per game.
» Florida is ranked No. 9 in scoring offense (80.1 points), No. 8 in scoring margin (14.1 points), No. 1 in three-pointers (10.5 per game), No. 12 in field goal percentage from three (40.2 percent), No. 16 in assists (16.3 per game) and No. 5 in assist/turnover ratio (1.48) nationally as of Feb. 5. The Gators are also 189th (out of 338 teams) in free throw shooting (68.4 percent).
» Kentucky is ranked No. 19 in scoring offense (78.2 points), No. 9 in scoring defense (57.5 points), No. 2 in scoring margin (20.5 points), No. 14 in field goal percentage (48.6 percent), No. 1 in field goal percentage defense (35.8 percent), No. 9 in rebound margin (+7.8) and No. 1 in blocked shots (9.4 per game) nationally as of Feb. 5. The Wildcats are No. 10 in fouling, committing 15.2 per game and No. 225 (out of 338 teams) in three-pointers (5.5 per game).

LAST TIME OUT
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DIFFICULTIES IN TAKING ON A NO. 1 TEAM KENTUCKY

After Tuesday’s game is over, Florida will have faced all three teams currently ranked in the top three of both the USA Today/ESPN and Associated Press Top 25 Polls in road games. The Gators are hoping to come away with their first victory in such an environment and will attempt to do that by looking at the Wildcats not as the No. 1 team in the land but rather just another SEC opponent.

“We never really look at it as where a team is ranked or not ranked getting prepared for them. You always look at the team because rankings and things like that are going to change throughout the course of the year,” Donovan said. “Whether they’re ranked No. 1 or No. 5, clearly they’re one of the best teams in the country. There’s no doubt about that. It’s just more getting ready for how we got to defend, what we have to do on offense and what we got to do to prepare for them.”

His mentality has obviously been passed on to Florida’s players. “We don’t really view it as playing a No. 1 team. It’s just Kentucky,” freshman guard Bradley Beal said. “It’s a league game, so we’re just coming in with the mentality that we’re going to play our game and focus in on what we need to do.” Junior G Kenny Boynton added, “It’s just a ranking at the end of the day. We’re just going to go in there to compete and win.”

DON’T GIVE DAVIS ANY EXTRA OPPORTUNITIES

Instead the Gators will focus on players like forward Anthony Davis, who broke Shaquille O’Neal’s freshman blocks record and still has more than a handful of regular season games left to play. Donovan wants to make sure Florida does not make costly mistakes in the interior to give Kentucky additional possessions and momentum at home.

“He’s great at it, and it does it a lot of different ways,” he said of Davis’s blocking prowess. “You got to be smart when you’re attacking the basket. When he has got a free run and he’s got no body on him, it’s a lot easier blocking shots when you got a free run or a free jump to go up there.

“It can’t be a situation where we’re not going to go to the basket or not post up because he’s there. You just got to make good, wise choices because when he does block shots, it certainly ignites them on the fast break and they’re a terrific transition fast breaking team.”

LET CALIPARI SLEEP ON THE SHOOTERS

In the SEC teleconference on Monday, Wildcats head coach John Calipari said the two Gators who worry him the most are not the two that have seen the most court time for Florida but rather a pair of players who are brand new starters this season.

“With [Erik] Murphy now they can spread the floor out. A year ago, you could predict that four or five would be close to the rim and you had a chance to guard them in the post,” Calipari said about the junior forward’s effectiveness. “Right now with Murphy being able to shoot that three the way he does, it makes it even more difficult to zone in on their big guys.”

There is one other player he is keeping his eye on – Beal – but not because of his ability to get the ball in the hoop. “He’s a skilled player who can beat you on the bounce, can make shots, terrific free throw shooter, good passer. I’ll tell you what he’s been doing. He’s been rebounding – especially offensively,” he said. “He goes and gets balls. Let’s just say you stop him and you’re feeling good, all of sudden he goes and grabs an offensive rebound and sticks it in and kind of breaks your rhythm.”

More than anything else, Calipari believes it is up to Kentucky to play within themselves to extend the team’s home winning streak to 49 games. He thinks the Wildcats are playing well but can undoubtedly get better as long as they stay humble.

“We’re really young and so there’s an easy transition from swagger to arrogance and that’s where you get beat,” he said. “We’re a good team. We’re not a great team, but we’re a good team. What we’d like to be by the end of the year is as good as our team was last year as a team.”

NOTES AND QUOTES

» Donovan on the schedule the rest of the way: “Our last eight games are extremely difficult because five of our last eight are on the road against really good teams. You’re going to play all 16 regardless. I think sometimes where they fall, how they fall does have an impact.”

» Donovan on sophomore center Patric Young’s recent struggles: “He is as good of a team player as I’ve coached. He’s about all the right things. The biggest thing for him is mentally pushing through. [...] With him being out as long as he has, you’re starting to see a carryover conditioning wise. He’s got to push himself through. There’s been moments in the last two games where he’s had those great minute or two bursts of athleticism, speed and quickness, and then he’s had some times where he’s kind of disappeared a little bit.”

» Donovan on his budding friendly rivalry with Calipari: “I’ve got great respect for John. John and I have a very good relationship. I’ve known John for a long, long time. Well before I ever got to Florida and well before I ever was at Kentucky as an assistant coach, Kentucky basketball-wise in this league has been kind of a measuring stick and they’ve set the bar for a long, long time going all the way back to Adolph Rupp. Kentucky in our league certainly brings a lot of national exposure. What you’ve seen in our league over the last 20 years is different coaches come in and elevate their program.

“At a school like Kentucky that has had the number of SEC Championships, conference tournament championships, national championships, there have been commitments made. [...] You’re seeing more of a commitment by a lot of schools to raise the bar, so to speak. Because Kentucky’s tradition as so rich and for so long, I don’t know if in a lot of ways people really understood how to do that, so to speak. I give Jeremy [Foley] a lot of credit in this. He had a vision for this program and for Florida and what could happen here. It’s not only recruiting and coaching, you got to have presidents, administrators and everybody on board to try and build something.”

» Beal on going to Kentucky: “Just playing in that environment is what I’m looking forward to most.”

» Beal on if he’s thought about turning pro after the season: “I’m not really sure about that. I really haven’t thought about it at all. I’ve just been focusing on the season one game at a time and focusing on the team right now.”

1 » According to The Gainesville Sun’s Pat Dooley, Florida Gators defensive coordinator Dan Quinn interviewed for but turned down the same position with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Quinn, who has been at Florida for just one season, was a NFL assistant with four different teams from 2001-10.

2 » The 2011-12 season may now be in the books but that does not mean Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow‘s name is out of the news. Tebow, who sat down for a 30-minute interview with ESPN’s Hannah Storm last week, will be featured on ESPN2 in “SportsCenter Special: Face to Face with Tim Tebow” on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 10:30 p.m. Tebow’s recent ESPN rounds included an interview with Scott Van Pelt and Ryen Russillo, which you can view below.

Four more BITS on Crowder, Demps, the Oh Fours and Wambach after the break!

3 » In a similar fashion to what happened in New Orleans two season ago, one former Florida player may unseat another Gators star currently on the roster of a NFL team. According to ESPN, it is unlikely that the Atlanta Falcons will choose to bring back veteran linebacker Mike Peterson for his 14th season. Instead the team appears to have its sights set on former Miami Dolphins LB Channing Crowder, who “retired” in 2011 to spend time with his pregnant wife and new baby after Miami decided to cut ties with him. The key connecting the dots? Former Dolphins defensive coordinator Mike Nolan took the same job with the Falcons in the offseason.

4 » Now concentrating on track and field, Florida junior sprinter Jeff Demps got good news on Friday when he learned that his 6.59-second 60-meter run at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet was good enough to automatically qualify him for the 2012 NCAA Indoor Championships. Demps, who has won the individual national title each of the last two years, earned the 6.59 time in his first meet of the 2012 season. “We’re obviously very pleased with Jeff,” head coach Mike Holloway said. “He’ll be the first to tell you that he didn’t execute the race well in the final, but he’s been working a lot in practice and he’ll only continue to improve as we get deeper into the season.”

5 » The Oh Fours received some news on Monday. First the good news, in which former Gators point guard Taureen Green announced on Twitter that he will play for the professional basketball team Tofaş of the Turkish Basketball League in 2012. Since leaving Florida, Green has spent short stints with three NBA teams but left the league in 2008 and has spent the last four years overseas playing in Spain and Greece.

On a much more somber note, Denver Nuggets guard/forward Corey Brewer left the team Monday morning after learning that his father has passed away at the age of 68 in Portland, TN. Brewer and his father, Ellis “Pee Wee” Brewer, were extremely close and shared hundreds of memories both on and off the court, which you can read about in this April 2007 story by Pat Forde of ESPN.com. Our deepest condolences go to the family.

6 » Learning that the WPS would not be active for the 2012 season, former Gators striker and current U.S. Women’s National Team member Abby Wambach is trying to stay positive and focusing on competing in the 2012 London Olympics. “You have to take all of the good things with the bad and make the best of them,” she told ESPNW. “It has been a hard week for women’s soccer. But, as a community, we’ve got to lose the egos. We have to get past the issues that have come between us.” Women’s soccer in the United States got a boost following the 2012 Women’s World Cup, but Wambach believes that a women’s league will need help from the MLS to create a long-lasting professional organization. “I think it’s probably going to be necessary for a league to survive,” she said said. “If we can get into a relationship with an MLS community, you’ve got many things built in. You’ve got infrastructure: people already in place in some jobs who might be able to help, stadiums, fields. There could be many costly things that are at least dramatically cut back, so you’re in a position where you can actually succeed. And then see if maybe in a few years, you could even be making money.

The Florida Gators reentered the top 10 for the first time since Dec. 26, 2011, falling in at No. 7 and No. 8 in the respective polls on the heels of consecutive victories at home against South Carolina (74-66) on Thursday evening and then-No. 25 Vanderbilt (73-65) on Saturday afternoon. Florida is one of three Southeastern Conference teams listed in both rankings.

Gators guard Bradley Beal picked up SEC Freshman of the Week honors for the second-straight week and fifth time this season on Monday after averaging 16.5 points, nine rebounds and two assists in consecutive wins for Florida over South Carolina and Vanderbilt. He notched a double-double on Thursday and followed it up with an impressive second half performance on Saturday.

Click to expand and view the complete top 25 polls.