Donovan’s Monday presser, SEC teleconference

Posted by Adam Silverstein | Posted in Basketball | January 10, 2012
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The No. 19 Florida Gators opened their Southeastern Conference schedule last Saturday with a tough double-digit loss to Tennessee, providing head coach Billy Donovan with plenty of ammunition when he met with the media on Monday and shared his thoughts on the loss as well as the two games Florida is set to play this week.

TEAM NEEDS TO FIND INTENSITY

Florida looked sluggish against Tennessee on Saturday, and if you ask Donovan why, he’ll tell you that is exactly what he saw, too. In fact, he thinks the Gators were “a step slow” in all aspects of the game – from offense and defense to rebounding and playing in transition. “We were always behind on the play. I didn’t think our awareness, our alertness was not good. We got beat off the dribble too much. We got beat inside too much. We were late reacting. We needed to do a much better job and play at a much better level to have a chance to beat anybody on the road in this league, and we did not do that up there,” he said during the SEC teleconference on Monday.

While Florida’s offense has been able to bail the team out of poor defensive performances before, Donovan said the Gators also lacked energy in that area. Unfortunately for UF, that carried over to the defensive end of the floor and Florida appeared to be defeated well before the final buzzer sounded.

“I thought they were the aggressor,” Donovan said in a press conference Monday. “It really bled to both ends of the floor, both offensively and defensively. Certainly as a coach you’re always disappointed when you got to admit this, but I really thought they played a whole heck of a lot harder than we did.

“My job, my responsibility as a coach is to get those guys prepared and ready to play at a level they need to. We did not play, in my opinion, with the level of energy that we needed to. When you’re not playing with the energy you need, what ends up happening is you are a step behind and the other team looks quicker, more athletic, more alert [and] better prepared. That to me was disappointing. Hopefully we can get that corrected and we can get better in that area and get prepared to play Georgia with a better effort.”

Freshman guard Bradley Beal agreed with Donovan’s assessment and understands where his coach is coming from. “Whenever we play hard, our offense comes off our defense,” he said. We really couldn’t get things going on offense because we weren’t doing good on defense. We really just, these past couple days, are trying to be physical and just trying to be basketball.”

NO SCORING ALLOWED ON SUNDAY

Florida met for two sessions on Sunday – one to watch film and figure out what went wrong and another to practice and try to improve before Tuesday’s tilt. During the actual practice, Donovan put covers on top of the hoops and ran an entire practice of defense and rebounding, two areas in which the Gators have been falling behind.

“We came back [from winter break] and we were probably somewhat hamstrung a little bit because of illnesses and sickness. I don’t think our practices leading up to the Rutgers game were at the intensity level that we needed them to be. Some of it was that we had guys out,” he explained. “I actually felt like going into the Tennessee game was the first time we’ve really had a full fledge of players and practice like I really would like to. Right now going forward, me being able to emphasize [defense and rebounding] in a competitive environment needs to happen more than maybe it’s happened in the past.”

Donovan continued, “In any situation where you do not play like you wanted to and you lose, I find that really good teams and really good players have an ability to be very self-reflective on themselves and what they need to do to get better. I thought our guys were that way. We had a chance to watch a good amount of film yesterday morning from the game. We had a chance to work on some things that I don’t think we did very well.”

Junior forward Erik Murphy thinks Donovan’s tactics worked. “It was real intense,” he said of Sunday’s practice. “We basically just played defense and rebounded the whole time. They got the bubbles up on the hoop so you had to rebound because those shots weren’t going in. We came out and I think we came out with the right mentality. We weren’t down on ourselves. We came out focused and we had to or else it would’ve been ugly. I think we’re headed down the right track right now.”

BEAL’S STRUGGLES ARE TEMPORARY, JUST GROWING PAINS

Beal has had a rough go of it as of late, missing tons of shots, turning the ball over and overall just not playing well. Donovan has noticed his struggles but thinks that there is an easy way for him to overcome his obstacles. “He’s got to have what I consider a nastiness to him, a meanness to him internally of fighting through and focusing on what’s the next play,” Donovan said. “He’s such a good kid and he wants to do the right things that sometimes when things don’t go well, he has a tendency to take himself back and he’s thinking about something that just happened and there’s a play going on right now. That’s an area of growth he’s got to go through.”

Though he was dealing with a sinus infection over the holidays, Beal is not using that as an excuse for his poor play and said that his “confidence will never be shaken” when it comes to the game of basketball. He also said that Donovan has helped him in so many ways that he believes he will finally be able to break out of his rut soon. “He’s been a very big help because he’s basically just getting me to calm down and relax and do things from his standpoint or as he was as a player,” Beal said. “He said I just have to play basketball. He said I’m going to go through adversity anyways, so I just have to play through it.”

NOTES AND QUOTES

» Donovan said sophomore guard/forward Casey Prather, who hurt his ankle against Tennessee, is doubtful for Tuesday’s game against Georgia. The team planned to give him some work in practice on Monday, but the trainers were not optimistic he would be 100 percent by game time.

» Donovan evaluating Georgia before the game: “We realize that, at the start of league play, we’ve got to continue to improve and get better. Georgia’s a basketball team that has lost some players from a year ago in their frontcourt but obviously their backcourt play has been outstanding as they’ve added some very talented young freshman. We realize it will be a challenge for us again [Tuesday] night.”

» Donovan on the Florida-Georgia game being different for basketball: “I’ve been in the league for a while, and I think in terms of the schools, geographically how close the schools are makes a natural border rivalry there so to speak. [...] When you’ve got that kind of rivalry border-wise, there’s always going to be a level of enthusiasm and excitement in fans and [things] people can get excited about. I do think it’s somewhat different than football because we will play each other twice a year, whereas football they play once a year in Jacksonville. More than anything else, Georgia’s program has been good and anytime you’re playing against a good program that’s as close as they are to yourself there’s always going to be a level of excitement.”

» Donovan on being 0-4 on the road: “The first two road games of the year were at No. 1 and No. 3, Syracuse and Ohio State – tough places to play, really good teams. Then we went to Rutgers, a difficult place to play; Knoxville is a difficult place to play. When you go on the road to play, you’re probably not going to shoot the ball nearly as well and you got to be able to have something to hang your hat on. Being able to defend, get good shots, those kinds of things become important. Regardless of who you’re playing on the road, especially now that we’re in conference play every road game is difficult. And I think every home game is difficult; I don’t think there are any easy games per se where you can just show up and play, and we’ll have to play a lot better against Georgia than we did against Tennessee.”

» Donovan on if the Gators are getting the ball to sophomore center Patric Young enough: “That’s one of the challenges we’re having right now as a team. Our guys are looking for Patric. For Erving [Walker] and Kenny [Boynton], it’s a different frontcourt for them than they’ve had to deal with the last two years. Vernon [Macklin] and Alex [Tyus] were pretty much at the basket. Chandler [Parsons] with his size was a great facilitator of our offense. Patric obviously with his athleticism, big and strong, Murphy is more of a stretch four, and Brad is a freshman. One of the things offensively is there are things we run at Patric to try and get him the ball and get him touches but scouting over a period of time, teams are going to take those things away. You got to be able to flow in offense and take advantage of what’s available and what’s open based on trying to put the defense in some binds and have to have them make some decisions. That’s an area we really need to get better at. We got to get better at making those decisions of recognizing him when we’re coming in transition and something’s happened.”

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1/5: Donovan, Boynton talk early start, road woes

Posted by Adam Silverstein | Posted in Basketball | January 5, 2012
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With No. 13/14 Florida Gators basketball days away from beginning their Southeastern Conference schedule with a road contest against the Tennessee Volunteers early Saturday afternoon, head coach Billy Donovan met with the media Thursday to discuss what preparations he is making for the squad’s next game.

TRYING TO GET THE TEAM HEALTHY

Injuries and illnesses have been piling up for Florida recently but Donovan is confident the Gators will be able to put them all in the back window soon. Redshirt freshman forward Cody LarsonCasey Prather (flu) have missed action recently due to being sick, and senior point guard Erving Walker and freshman G Bradley Beal have also caught a bug. However, all four are expected to be in action Saturday especially seeing as how Beal only missed one day of practice and Walker did not miss any.

During practice Thursday, junior F Erik Murphy got hit with an elbow by sophomore center Patric Young while the two were jostling for a rebound. Murphy had 3-4 stitches above his eyebrow, according to Donovan, and should be fine for the game. The only outstanding injury that Florida is keeping an eye on is redshirt junior G Mike Rosario’s ankle, which was recently twisted and caused him to miss the UAB game.

EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WIN

Florida and Tennessee will meet Saturday with an 11 a.m. tip-off, an unusual time for a southeast college basketball game, but Donovan said he completely understands the scheduling and has no problem with it whatsoever.

“It’s just the price of having our league wanting to play on TV as much as it is. Everybody, whether it’s a 9 [p.m.] game somewhere whether it’s an 11 a.m. game, I think we all realize we’ve got to do things for the league and the exposure that ESPN is giving us,” he said. “I think that’s a part of it but, you know what, we’re playing at 11 a.m. and so are they, so we just have to make sure we are ready to play.”

Junior G Kenny Boynton is excited for the early start because he actually prefers it and thinks that the Gators are prepared for the change of pace. “Our team, we’ve been practicing early to get ready for this game, and we’re going to come out ready,” he said. “Usually one of the teams don’t come out ready since it’s an early game, but I think we need to be an enforcer.”

ROAD WOES NOT GETTING FLORIDA DOWN

Florida has lost all three of its true road games this season, a fact not lost on Donovan or his players. Obviously two of those contests were early in the season against teams ranked No. 3 in the nation at the time, but the Gators also dropped a tough double-overtime contest at Rutgers just last week. The common denominator between those losses? Turnovers – UF averaged 18 per game with a season-high 20 against Syracuse.

“I think that’s something that we got to do a better job at and will need to do a better job in Knoxville,” Donovan said. “I also think our ability to make really good decisions, and I don’t necessarily mean turning the ball over, but making good decision of when to shoot, when not to shoot, when to go inside – all of that stuff with our team being on the same page, I think that’s got to get better, too.”

Boynton is confident in Florida’s ability to win on the road and pointed to how well last year’s team played away from home once it hunkered down and practiced hard, which is what he said the Gators have been doing this week.

“We played some tough teams on the road, and we let Rutgers slip [by us], but we’ve seen the mistakes we did on the road against those three teams, and I think we’re going to do a good job playing against Tennessee,” he said.

NOTES AND QUOTES

» Donovan on Beal’s recent struggles: “There’s a different level of talent he’s dealing with right now. For him to go through what he went through last game and what he went through from Rutgers, he has to go through that in order to take the next step as a player, to understand the speed and pace of the game, to understand that he’s got to play out of his comfort zone a little bit in terms of the speed of the game. Him going through the process of coming from high school to college and how different it is, I just think there’s a real learning curve there for him, and I don’t think he’s different from any really talented freshman.”

» Donovan on Young developing offensively: “Patric’s gotten better. The biggest thing for him is a combination of our guys finding him in good spots on the floor and also him working to get to those spots on the floor. He’s been a lot more efficient offensively because when he has that good deep post position we’ve found him and we’ve gotten him the ball to him in the right areas of the floor. Where Patric is probably not as effective is when he catches it maybe a couple steps off the lane line and now all of a sudden the guys on the perimeter can really sink down and provide help as he works his way to the basket.”

» Boynton on Young’s aggressiveness in practice: “Whether it’s been a pick or a rebound, Pat’s hit everyone on this team.”

» Sophomore point guard Scottie Wilbekin on if he’s been tagged by Young yet: “No, he’s never got me. I stay out of his way.”

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12/28: Rosario ready for his return to Rutgers

Posted by Adam Silverstein | Posted in Basketball | December 28, 2011
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With No. 10 Florida Gators basketball set to resume action with a road contest against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Thursday in its second-to-last game of 2011, head coach Billy Donovan met with the media Wednesday to discuss what preparations he and the team are making for the squad’s next game.

ROSARIO ANTICIPATED BACK FOR HOMECOMING

Despite being declared “doubtful” last week and a person close to his family telling SNY.tv he was unlikely to play Thursday, redshirt junior guard Mike Rosario is expected to be back on the court against his former team, Donovan said on Wednesday.

“I think right now he’s going to play. He went through practice on the 26th – he did do a full contact [Tuesday] although, through my own decisions, I pulled him in and out,” he said. “He’s still having some discomfort there but it’s not at the level it was. When you’re dealing with his back, it has to be how he feels a little bit and what he can handle.”

Rosario agreed with Donovan’s assessment, also saying Wednesday that he is “100 percent” and feels “way better than I felt two weeks ago.” He continued, “It’s a long process and it’s a long season. I feel as though I’m in a great position right now, and I’m just happy to be a Gator.”

Due to both his injury and what Donovan referred to as his mental state a few weeks back, Rosario has not see the court as much as he may have liked to this point. Nevertheless, he remains positive about his spot on the team going forward. “It’s not frustrating. I had a little setback because of my back,” he said. “When you have injuries before your conference play, you always want to take care of that because you want to make sure you’re 100 percent before conference play comes. By me taking those couple days off really helped me and got me ready for [Thursday’s] game.”

The fact that Rosario will be able to play against his former team is lost on him whatsoever. “It means a lot to go back home and play in my state, especially playing against a school I went to two years ago. It’s going to be a great opportunity for me to go out there and just have fun and be able to play the game and have fun,” he said. “I’m just excited to go back up there and be able to play and have my friends and family and some of the people that I still speak to at Rutgers come out and see me play. The most important thing is to just go out there and have fun. I’m just anxious for the opportunity.”

Donovan is equally happy to have him back in the fold, especially considering how important he knows the game is to his player. “I do think that Mike is a valuable and important piece to our team. Keeping him healthy and having him available is important to our team,” he said. “I’m sure there will be a lot of emotions running through him – when you make a decision to transfer and leave and then all of a sudden your first year back playing you’re going back there to play.”

LEADING THE NATION FROM DOWNTOWN

Florida is currently No. 1 nationally in three-point shooting, but Donovan said he is even more pleased with the way the team has been finding sophomore center Patric Young ever since the Arizona game a few weeks ago. He feels that the Gators’ realization that they need to play inside-out has opened up even more shots from downtown and helped the team be more consistent form that distance.

“It’s not about how many threes we get up, it’s about the shooting percentage,” he said. “If we’re shooting 40 percent from the three-point line, that’s a good thing. Where you get hurt a little bit is when you take a lot of three-point shots and you start shooting a percentage below 30 percent. Then it’s not good.”

Rosario is not surprised how well Florida is shooting from beyond the arc. In fact, he thinks the Gators should and will be hitting a higher percentage of its attempts from downtown as the season wears on.

“We work on shooting every day and coach loves when we run-and-gun, when we run up and down and shoot threes and just being a run-and-gun team. That’s something that we’ve been trying to take advantage of,” he said. “I think we should be shooting better from three, but time will tell. We’re in the gym every day taking a lot of shots and putting a lot of shots up. It feels good to be leading the nation behind the arc.”

Because he feels Florida will shoot even better and improve its defense and consistency from the line (see note and quotes section), Rosario believes the Gators are not close to the team they will be in March. “I really think you haven’t seen close to what this team will look like,” he said. “This team hasn’t reached our peak yet, and we’re still trying to find the little things that we need to win a championship. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

NOTES AND QUOTES

» Donovan said some members of the team are suffering though illnesses. Redshirt freshman forward Cody Larson missed some time recently with a sore throat but returned to action against Florida State, and sophomore G/F Casey Prather is expected to be out of action Thursday due to being sick.

» Donovan on Florida’s competition up to this point in the season: “We’ve had a pretty good measuring stick going into the league [schedule]. We’ve played clearly two of the best teams in the country on the road. We learned a lot from both of those games. We played a Florida State team who is obviously long and athletic and big, and we played well in that game. The Arizona game there was some adversity. We didn’t play well, we frustrated ourselves, [but] we found a way to win that game. Texas A&M – going down [to Sunrise, FL] against a top-20 team, playing them.” He is pleased that the team has been exposed to various styles of play and competitive teams in great environments while participating in close games and having some of their weaknesses exposed.

» Rosario on what the team needs to improve: “Free throw shooting is the most important thing, but I think that we can be a very good defensive team. That’ something that we’ve been working on every day trying to get better at that. The opportunity is here. The season is here and it’s a great opportunity for us to go out and prove the nation wrong.”

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Florida vs. Texas A&M post-game notes

Posted by Adam Silverstein | Posted in Basketball | December 19, 2011
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The No. 13 Florida Gators beat up on the No. 22 Texas A&M Aggies 84-64 on Saturday afternoon at the 2011 Orange Bowl Basketball Classic in Sunrise, FL. After the game, head coach Billy Donovan and game MVP junior guard Kenny Boynton shared their thoughts on the victory.

BOYNTON’s BIG HOMECOMING

For the second-straight year, Boynton returned home to South Florida and picked up the MVP award in the OBBC. He accomplished the feat this time around by, as Donovan said, playing within himself and not losing sight of what was important in the game.

“With Kenny playing here before and playing like he did a year ago, the thing I just told him [before the game] was to let the game come to you. Just play and just take what the defense is giving us and do what we’re doing. There’s going to be enough opportunities for him,” he said. “There’s a mindset you have to have. I don’t think it’s ever easy when you come back [and play at home]. One thing I told Patric Young when he went back to play at Jacksonville: ‘All those people in the stands – they’re still going to love you regardless of what happens.’ When you’re back home, you want to do well you want the team to do well. There is so much you want to happen in a positive way. It says a lot about Kenny mentally coming in, staying focused on what the team needed to do. As a result, he had a great game because I think he really played the right way.”

Boynton dropped six threes on his way to a team-high 22 points and was efficient from beyond the arc, appearing to take controlled, balanced shots at every opportunity. Donovan explained that his mindset has changed a lot this year – all for the better.

“When he’s got his legs under him and he’s on balance, he can make deep shots and if guys are closing to him, he can get it off. I’m really happy for him this year. It’s been a lot of fun for me as a coach,” he said. “When he got here as a freshman, he was such a prolific scorer and he did it from behind the line because he could get it off. He went through a great learning process where he had a chance to play a lot as a freshman and then last year he added some different things. Right now, offensively, he’s becoming more and more complete. His turnover ratio is really good. He’s making pull-up mid-range jump shots. He’s making runners. With him doing that, it’s opening up other areas for him behind the line. The biggest thing that he’s doing right now is he’s finally realizing how long a game is.”

REMEDYING THE FREE THROW WOES

The Gators entered Saturday’s game ranked 318th nationally in free throw shooting, hitting just about 59 percent of their attempts from the charity stripe. Florida did much better this week, shooting 77 percent (23-of-30) from the line, playing to Donovan’s opinion that UF is not as bad as it may seem in that area.

“We’re a better free throw shooting team than the stats show,” he said. Kenny’s a good free throw shooter, as is Erving [Walker]. Brad [Beal] made his free throws; he was 6-for-6. I think Will [Yeguete] and Pat need to continue to get better. It was good to see that Casey [Prather] missed his first two; he came back and made two later. How good of a free throw shooting team are we percentage-wise? I know we’re better than 59 percent. They’ve worked at it, they’ve put the time in and we need to just keep doing that.”

NOTES AND QUOTES

» Donovan on how Florida started the game: “I thought the first half was the best we’ve played all year.”

» Donovan on how the game went: “These guys offensively and defensively I thought played really well. I wish we would have handled the lead a little bit better coming out of the locker room. We shared it, we passed it, we moved it. We had inside-outside action. Kenny and Erving and Brad really did a great job, when they got in the lane they knew when to take it in the rim, when they got in the lane they knew when to throw it out to each other.”

» Donovan on having some early foul trouble: “Overall playing the game in the first half really without Patric against that kind of frontcourt, I thought our defense was disruptive enough with the press at half court that we were able to weather that battle with Will and Pat being in foul trouble.”

» Donovan on junior forward Erik Murphy returning to the starting lineup: “We do need Erik’s ability to shoot the ball, stretch the defense, size, rebounding. He can do some different things offensively. We needed to get him back in there. It was nothing that Will did wrong; actually Will did a great job in his absence.”

» Boynton on winning the MVP award: “It’s always great to come back home and have a great performance. This is our third year here. The first year we lost but the last years we won. I thought I played good overall, but I’m more happier with the win.”

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12/7: Florida vs. Arizona post-game notes

Posted by Adam Silverstein | Posted in Basketball | December 7, 2011
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The No. 12 Florida Gators took down the Arizona Wildcats 78-72 in overtime Wednesday evening at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL. After the game, head coach Billy Donovan and the players provided their thoughts on the win.

FOCUSING ON SOME POSITIVES

Before diving into all of the things that the Gators did wrong Wednesday, Donovan made it a point to mention how proud he was of the team not getting down on itself for shooting poorly and instead sticking together and pulling through in the end.

“Our guys really showed resiliency. Up three with five seconds to go, our guys probably could have come to the huddle disappointed and disenchanted that the game is going to overtime feeling like they had it. We showed some resiliency and some fight,” he said.

“I was pretty annoyed going into the overtime. Our guys kept a pretty good focus and they battled and they fought and they found a way to win the game in overtime. It wasn’t one of our better games. I didn’t feel like we played very intelligently. Arizona had a lot to do with that. They were certainly well-prepared and they did a great job. The things that I thought would cause us some problems in the game really did cause us some problems. Our guys found a way to hang in there and make some plays and finally make a few free throws to win the game.”

CHARITY STRIPE NOT SO CHARITABLE

There is only one way to say it: Florida was awful from the free throw line Wednesday. The Gators opened the contest 0-7 from the line and went 1-9 in the first half. Then stuck at 2-14 with just 2:59 left in regulation, Florida turned it on and hit 5-6 to close the second half and 8-10 in overtime. The Gators hit 13 of their finaly 16 attempts (thanks mostly to senior point guard Erving Walker) but still shot just 47 percent in the game.

“I’ve never ever seen in my life 2-for-14 at one point from the free throw line. I could go out right now and make 2-for-14 left handed. Two-for-14? Everybody in this room could make 2-for-14,” Donovan said emphatically. “I thought we drained ourselves where we had some really good possessions in the first half that led to us getting fouls. We had them in foul trouble in the first half. We got to the bonus very early in the first half, and we just completely killed runs and momentum with our free throw shooting.

“It’s not one guy. It’s our whole team, and we have to do a better job. In overtime and coming down the stretch we did do a better job making free throws. The two biggest things in the game that I look at in the stat sheet is Walker and [Kenny Boynton – what they were from the field – and our free throw shooting. Those two things were somewhat disappointing.”

More on Walker and Boynton's shooting is coming from OGGOA on Thursday.

YEGUETE THE WORM

Aside from sophomore center Patric Young – who scored a career-high 25 points on an efficient 12-of-15 shooting with 10 rebounds and only three fouls in 38 minutes – sophomore forward Will Yeguete was the star of the show Wednesday. In addition to hitting all three of his shots, Yeguete grabbed eight rebounds (three offensive) and four steals; however that stat line barely equates to his impact in the game.

Yeguete was all over the place Wednesday, helping create turnovers and rebounding opportunities, playing great defense and often being in the right place at the right time on loose balls. Donovan noticed that and offered up some great praise.

“He drives me nuts from the free throw line, he really does, but the thing about him is all of those intangible things, I really do think he is like Dennis Rodman on a smaller scale. He just rebounds. He’s like The Worm. He just comes up with plays, deflections, steals, hands on balls, offensive rebounds, [keeping] stuff alive. He gives incredible effort,” he said.

“All of those things that people look at as being very unglamorous, he makes them pretty glamorous by the way he approaches it and attacks. He’s the one guy on our team that, when you see him do those things, you can clearly say, ‘Wow, that’s what coaches love. They love those guys.’ Fans love guys and appreciate guys that give that kind of effort and do all the little things. He’s got a great ability to do that. He’s really special in that area.”

Yeguete’s teammates also appreciate him. “That’s my best friend and my roommate as well,” Young said after the game. “Just to find him it is that kind of bond you just can’t really describe. Whoever he’s guarding, he’s going to give them hell. If anybody crosses over in front of him, he’s going to get his hand on it.”

NOTES AND QUOTES

» Donovan on why he didn’t play redshirt junior G Mike Rosario in the second half: “I thought Mike played really good. He was really locked in; he was focused. We got down, and I really tried to keep defense out there with [Casey] Prather in the second half, Yeguete in the second half and Scottie Wilbekin. I thought we really needed to get defensive stops. With Arizona’s speed and quickness son the floor there in the second half, Mike was out there but you could tell he was a step behind on some plays. We were getting put into some rotations. If it wasn’t for Mike in that first half, we probably could have been down 10-12 points going into the half. I think he really responded well from the Syracuse game.”

» Walker on the game: “Coach just said keep playing. It’s a 40-minute game. Teams make runs, and that’s a good team we played. For us to come out and win after the way we played today – not that we played bad. Pat played great for us. He picked up the slack for everybody. For us to come out with a win, that’s great for us tonight.”

» Walker on how he thinks the team played: “We feel like we got away with one. Coach D told us great game. We were resilient and he was proud of us. He told us there were nights the ball just won’t go in the hole and we have to defend and rebound to still win games. Our crowd tonight helped us out a lot tonight being at home. With the way we shot the ball, it was huge for us. [...] We got kind of lucky tonight.”

» Young on the team’s mindset in overtime: “Everyone was like, ‘Man, that was crazy he called that.’ But you got to keep playing. We say it’s a 40-minute game, but today it was a 45-minute game. We had to keep our mindset that we were going to play hard defensively, we were going to take care of the ball and we were going to knock down free throws. We didn’t shoot very good free throws today, but in the clutch we knocked them down and in overtime.”

» Freshman G Bradley Beal on the foul with five seconds left: “Nobody agreed with the call but you have to turn around and start focusing on overtime. You have to stay composed and just play basketball.”

» Beal on the Rowdy Reptiles: “The crowd was pretty hype – it was the sixth man for us.”

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No. 12 Florida escapes Arizona 78-72 in overtime

Posted by Adam Silverstein | Posted in Basketball | December 7, 2011
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It took five minutes longer than they probably hoped, but the No. 12 Florida Gators (6-2) came away from the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL on Wednesday evening with a 78-72 victory over the Arizona Wildcats (6-3) in overtime.

Florida sophomore center Patric Young posted his third double-double of the season, scoring a career-high 25 points on 12-of-15 shooting and grabbing 10 rebounds (six offensive). Gators senior point guard Erving Walker, who struggled from the floor in regulation, scored seven points in overtime and finished with 14 to go along with five assists and five turnovers.

Arizona jumped ahead to an early lead but was also sloppy at the start of the game, turning the ball over four times in the first four minutes of the contest. Junior forward Erik Murphy and redshirt junior guard Mike Rosario checked in for the first time less than five minutes into the game and each hit a three-pointer as part of a 12-2 run that gave Florida a 14-7 advantage and its first lead of the game.

Rosario wound up going 3-for-5 from downtown for 10 points in the first half, and the Gators were supported early on by Young, who scored 12 of the team’s first 20 points. However, the Wildcats ended the half on a 6-0 run – capped by a buzzer-beating floater by G/F Kevin Parrom – and took a one-point lead into halftime.

Tied at 41 with 15 minutes to play, Arizona used an 11-4 run to take a 52-46 lead and eventually jumped ahead seven points. Florida struggled shooting again in the second half but eventually put together a 14-4 run of their own to jump ahead 66-63 with just eight seconds remaining.

After bringing the ball across the court, the Wildcats called timeout inbounded it to F Solomon Hill, who was accidentally fouled by sophomore G/F Casey Prather. Hill was hit with his back to the basket beyond the arc, but the referees believed he was in the act of shooting and rewarded Arizona with an opportunity to tie the game on three foul shots.

Hill hit all three of his attempts to knot it at 66, and a half court three-pointer by Walker clanged off the backboard at the end of regulation.

Walker scored first for the Gators in overtime and hit five three throws down the stretch to help solidify a win for Florida. Three Wildcats (including Hill) fouled out in the extra period, and the Gators never trailed once in overtime.

Florida opened the contest 0-for-7 from the line and went just 1-for-9 in the first half. The Gators were only 2-of-14 from the charity stripe with 2:59 to play in regulation but hit 5-of-6 to close the second half and 8-of-10 in overtime to finish the game by connecting on 13 of their final 16 attempts.

Arizona was efficient from the line all evening (11-of-15) and cut down on their turnovers, coughing the ball up just four times in the second half after giving Florida 10 extra chances in the first 20 minutes.

Aside from Young, who shot 80 percent from the field, the Gators made just 30 percent of their attempts from the floor. UF shot 25.9 percent from downtown, outrebounded the UA 40-31 (17-7) and only turned the ball over 11 times.

Though it may not show up on the stat sheet, sophomore F Will Yeguete was a presence for Florida throughout the game, grabbing eight boards (three offensive) and four steals while scoring seven points on 3-for-3 shooting. He was involved in numerous other rebounds and turnover situations.

Gators junior G Kenny Boynton had his worst shooting performance of the season, hitting just 2-of-11 shots (1-for-6 from downtown) for nine points. Freshman G Bradley Beal also scored nine points, adding six rebounds and two assists.

UF will travel to Jacksonville, FL on Friday for a neutral site contest against Rider. The game will air live on Comcast Sports South (check your local listings).

Photo Credit: Phil Sandlin/Associated Press

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Donovan earns 400th win as Florida routs Stetson

Posted by Adam Silverstein | Posted in Basketball | November 28, 2011
Comments » 9

Despite some coaching news that may have hit Florida Gators fans the wrong way earlier in the day, Gator Nation had an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of head basketball coach Billy Donovan Monday evening.

Donovan picked up the 400th victory of his head coaching career as No. 9/10 Florida (5-1) routed the Stetson Hatters (3-3) 96-70 in the second annual Florida Citrus Sports Shootout at Amway Center in Orlando, FL.

Donovan became the youngest active coach with at least 400 Division I victories with the win but gave all of the credit to the talented players he has coached over the years.

Freshman guard Brad Beal led the way for a Gators with the best performance of his young career, notching his second double-double including career-highs of 22 points and 10 rebounds. He shot 50 percent from the field, beyond the arc and at the line, blocked three shots, grabbed two steals and accounted for two assists for Florida.

As has been tradition this season, the Gators started hot out of the gate and used an impressive 20-4 run including four threes to take an early 38-16 lead.

The Hatters answered quickly by posting 13-straight points as UF went on a 4:36 scoring drought, but Florida responded by hitting six free throws and a three-pointer to end the half on a 9-0 run and take a 47-31 lead on Stetson into the break.

Though the Gators maintained a comfortable lead in the second half, the Hatters were relentless on both ends of the floor.

Florida hit nine threes to start the game but went 10:53 through the half without knocking another in from downtown. Senior point guard Erving Walker finally connected on a trey with 11:52 remaining, marking a school record six-straight games in which the Gators have hit at least 10 triples.

Despite the back-and-forth play, Florida pulled away in the end and took a game-high 26-point lead on a three by Walker with under two minutes to go.

Walker finished with 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting (3-for-7 from three) with five assists. Junior G Kenny Boynton, who struggled early in the game, added 13 points and was just 3-for-8 from downtown.

Sophomore center Patric Young was tagged four quick fouls and scored just nine points, but sophomore forward Will Yegeute picked up the slack with his first career double-double of 10 points and 11 boards. He started his second-straight game in place of junior F Erik Murphy, who remains out of action with a tear in his meniscus.

The Gators also got quality minutes from sophomore G/F Casey Prather, who scored five points and picked up two steals but was the first player in over a year to foul out of a game for Florida.

UF shot just 45.3 percent from the floor and 40 percent from downtown but hit 70 percent of their free throws. The Gators outrebounded the Hatters 40-33 (14-5 on the offensive glass), stole the ball 12 times, forced 17 turnovers and only gave the ball up nine times. Stetson was held to just 1-of-18 shooting (5.6 percent) from three and hit 40.7 percent of their shots from the field.

Florida will face their second top-five ranked opponent this season when they travel to face No. 3/4 Syracuse on Friday. The game will air live at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

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Injury updates for Kitchens, Murphy and Prather

Posted by Adam Silverstein | Posted in Basketball, Football | November 27, 2011
Comments » 4

A number of Florida Gators have suffered injuries over the last few days but detailed updates on three student-athletes in particular have been released this weekend.

Gators sophomore linebacker Darrin Kitchens, playing coverage on the opening kickoff of the second half during the tilt with Florida State on Saturday, was hit had and laid motionless on the field for nearly 10 minutes Saturday evening. He was eventually placed on a stretcher and carted off to the locker room.

Florida announced Sunday morning that Kitchens was taken to Shands Hospital for further evaluation. Doctors determined that he suffered a concussion during the game but luckily all tests done on his neck came back negative.

Kitchens was released late Saturday night and is said to be doing fine.

Gators head basketball coach Billy Donovan also updated the respective statuses of junior forward Erik Murphy and sophomore guard/forward Casey Prather on Saturday.

Donovan said Murphy, who bumped knees with a teammate in practice Thursday prior to the Jacksonville game, has a tear in his meniscus and will be out indefinitely.

The extent of Murphy’s tear and a determination as to whether or not he will need surgery will give the team a better idea of how long he will be out of action, but he is expected to return at some point this season.

Prather pulled his groin during practice Thursday but was able to participate in shoot around and play the first half of Friday’s game. However, he felt some discomfort while on the court and sat out the second half.

Donovan said that Prather has been cleared to return to practiced on a limited basis but his status for Monday’s game against Stetson in Orlando, FL is to be determined.

Florida may choose to rest Prather during Monday’s contest in order to have him fully healthy before UF travels to face No. 5 Syracuse on Friday.

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