If two players were to be singled out for their respective performances on Saturday, Beal and Yeguete would undoubtedly get those honors. After struggling in the first half, Beal hit two big threes in the second half, took a ball coast-to-coast for an impressive lay-in and netted four free throws down the stretch to help Florida offensively.

“I was really proud of Brad,” Donovan said. “He didn’t shoot the ball particularly well … in the first half. He didn’t have a great first half and didn’t do a whole lot but then he knocked down a big three for us that gave us the lead. He had a great transition drive; he got fouled one time going to the rim. He made a lot of really good plays that really impacted the game. The last 10 minutes of the game he really made some big plays.”

Still trying to improve his offensive game, Yeguete factored in mostly on the defensive end. He was the main cog causing the Gators’ press to be successful and gave the team a major boost while on the court for 29 minutes.

“He was great. He was really good in the press, disruptive, steals, deflections. He really exerted a lot of energy. He was a difference maker in the press for us,” Donovan said. “The thing with him that he’s great at – and he’s probably the best guy since Brent Wright who was here up there – there’s a lot of decisions he has to make in the press of when to go trap, when not to go trap, understanding how the floor is starting to move and look. He’s got a really high IQ of understanding hat. When he’s in that mode there where he can kind of freelance around, he can cause some problems. He was really disruptive.”

NOTES AND QUOTES

» Donovan on deciding to start Young after five-straight games on the bench: “Patric is too critical to our team and too valuable that I just forced him right back into the starting lineup. And that was a great decision because he played three minutes in the first half with two fouls. [Smiling] I’m not so sure if that was a good decision or not. [...] It was nothing that he did or didn’t do.”

» Junior G Kenny Boynton on trying to end Kentucky’s home winning streak: “I’m very excited. We got the team to do it.”

Consecutive treys by redshirt junior G Mike Rosario and sophomore point guard Scottie Wilbekin put the Gators ahead a game-high 16 points with 13:39 left, but LSU stitched together a 10-2 run to cut the Tigers’ deficit in half with 7:46 remaining.

Florida maintained its eight-point lead with three minutes left in the game and that’s when senior PG Erving Walker took over, scoring eight of UF’s last 10 points.

Murphy was one of five Gators to score in double figures. Walker posted 12 points but only hit 1-of-6 attempts from downtown, and three other Florida players – Beal, Rosario and junior G Kenny Boynton – added 11 points each.

Walker moved into seventh all-time at UF in career scoring by the end of the contest, passing Gene Shy, Matt Bonner and Eugene McDowell with 1,575 points.

Beal’s eight boards were a team-high, and Rosario played 15 solid minutes off the bench. Boynton went 0-for-4 from three, ending a 34-game streak of hitting at least one trey. The mark was second-longest in school history behind Lee Humphrey (39).

LSU F Justin Hamilton led his team throughout the entire game, scoring a career-high 27 points and grabbing eight rebounds (five offensive), but his sterling effort was simply not enough to earn the Tigers a victory.

In addition to outshooting LSU from the field and at the line, Florida outrebounded their opponent 30-29. The Tigers committed 10 turnovers in the first half but just one in the second, forcing the Gators to cough up the ball on one more occasion over the course of the evening (12). UF also outscored LSU 36-32 in the paint and 24-10 off the bench.

Florida will once again have a nice break before playing two games over the course of three days. The Gators will travel to Ole Miss on Thursday for a 7 p.m. game (ESPN2) before hosting Mississippi State on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (SEC Network).

Photo Credit: Phil Sandlin/Associated Press

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.”

With an efficient shooting night, a career-high 25 points and double-digit rebounds to boot, sophomore center Patric Young ensured that his name was heard on Wednesday. What Donovan cares most about is that Young comes back down to earth and puts the great performance behind him before heading home to Jacksonville to take on Rider.

“This is a great opportunity really for Patric to learn,” he said. “One of the hardest things with players when they’re young is to be able to let go of when something really good happens. A lot of times when you lose or you have a bad game, you want to get past it and you want to get on to the next thing. [...] He’s got to go into the game and play the game with an understanding that last night’s over with and be able to move to the next game.”

Young, who joked that he has “the whole arena…reserved” for his friends and family, said it has been tough to put the performance behind him because “every five minutes somebody reminds me.”

“I had like 50 something messages on my phone telling me good job [Wednesday],” Young said. “ I guess you could view it as a breakthrough game. It was almost double my former career-high. I had an opportunity to showcase what I can really do and what I’m capable of doing for the team. Whenever my number is called again, hopefully it’ll be sometime along the lines of this season, hopefully I can do the same thing.”

Even so, he is confident that by game time on Friday he will be able to focus on the contest at hand no matter how well he did previously or who is in the crowd.

“I’m just going to think of it as any other game – go out there and do the things I can control like run the floor, rebound and finish when the ball comes to me,” he said.

NOTES AND QUOTES

» Donovan on who will start at the four: “Right now we’re staying with Will until I think Erik can get his legs under him a little bit and get some more minutes under his belt. Will’s obviously played well and given us a great boost in Erik’s absence. From an offensive standpoint, the way Erik can stretch the floor and the way he can shoot the ball, we certainly need to get him back in the rotation and get him back playing.”

» Donovan on if the team is closer to finding an identity: “There’s a cohesiveness, a chemistry, a bond on the court that needs to transpire and take place. I always think that’s a work in progress. When you play the schedule we’ve played, playing on the road at Ohio State and Syracuse then playing last night against Arizona and playing Jacksonville who beat us the year before, those things kind of get themselves resolved. When you’re in a tight game like that, possession become important, playing together becomes important, utilizing each other becomes important. That, for us, is a work in progress.”

» Donovan on if freshman Jacoby Brissett has contacted him about joining the team: “No, I have not spoken to him.”

» Donovan on why Florida fouled up three against Arizona and what he thought of the official’s call in the act of shooting: “[Casey Prather] didn’t make the decision. I made the decision to foul. He did exactly what we wanted to do. [...] I really felt on the side on an inbounds play they were going to have to throw the ball to somebody. I felt like we could matchup and get there. Exactly what he did was what we wanted to happen. I just felt like he fouled him before [he took tried to take the shot]. That’s just my opinion; obviously it was a different call. I felt good about what we did there. [...] I’ve never seen a guy start his act of shooting with his back to the basket. That’s not in the act of shooting. I thought Solomon Hill did a fabulous job selling it – did a great job. Clearly I don’t know if it was the right call.”

» Donovan on what redshirt junior guard Mike Rosario needs to do to improve on defense: “Foot speed-wise he’s [not] as gifted as Scottie [Wilbekin] or Erving [Walker] or Kenny [Boynton], so to speak. He has the ability and potential to be a very good defender because he’s very smart. He’s intelligent. His problem is that he gets too loose and gets too relaxed sometimes and then all of a sudden his man moves or breaks or comes off a screen and he’s like a step late. He needs to be better sniffing out what’s getting ready to happen instead of reacting to what’s happened – almost anticipating what’s going to happen. His ability to guard on the dribble has got to get better; he’s got to do a better job doing that for us.”

» Young on the team’s free throw shooting: “It’s crazy because we’re actually a good free throw shooting team when it comes to practicing. When it matters and it comes to the game, we’re just coming up short. Guys are going to put in work because they don’t want to leave those points up on the board.”

» Young on SportsCenter not covering the Gators enough: “I feel like SportsCenter doesn’t give us any love. They don’t’ show our highlights. They don’t. They don’t. I could watch it for two hours, and they would not show Florida basketball highlights at all. I’m serious. You have to go on to their website to find it and look it up. Not on TV though.”

» Young on why Yeguete is so good: “He has a [good] mindset, long arms, his size being 6’7” he’s able to move his feet and guard anybody in front of him. He can guard 1-5 which is really rare with any player nowadays, especially with a big strong poster. He’s able to keep guys in front of him and hold his own.”

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.”

Jacksonville opened up hot with a pair of threes to take an early 6-2 lead, but Florida quickly responded with an impressive 26-4 run spanning 6:21 to jump ahead 18 points with 10:25 left in the first half. Boynton made consecutive treys to end the run and also contributed a layup and two free throws during the stretch.

Undeterred by the Gators’ offensive breakout, the Dolphins countered with an 8-0 run to reduce their deficit to 10 points. However, UF kept the pressure on and used an 11-0 run including two baskets by sophomore center Patric Young to go up to go up 22 points.

Florida increased that advantage to 24 points but ended the first half with a 20-point lead after JU’s Russell Powell hit an off-balance three-pointer at the buzzer.

The teams traded deuces to open the second half, but the Gators scored 11-straight points and held a 31-point lead with 17 minutes to play. Young scored five-straight points during the run, which was capped off with a trey from sophomore PG Scottie Wilbekin.

Florida maintained its big lead for the remainder of the contest and wound up winning by 45 points, their largest margin of the evening.

All 10 Gators scored and five reached double figures. Joining Boynton and Walker were Young (14), freshman G Brad Beal (15) and redshirt junior G Mike Rosario (12).

Young, Beal and sophomore forward Will Yeguete each registered nine rebounds with Yeguete, who started in place of injured junior F Erik Murphy (right knee), also scored a career-high eight points.

Florida notched double-digit threes for the fifth straight game, and Boynton improved to 19-for-35 (54.2 percent) from downtown this season.

The Gators outrebounded the Dolphins 42-30, dished 11 more dimes (19-8) and hit 63 percent of their attempts from the charity stripe (22-for-35). UF held JU to 38 percent shooting and forced 16 turnovers on the evening.

Florida only committed seven turnovers Friday with Beal coughing it up five times. Young added three blocks on the evening and three Gators registered two steals.

UF will travel to Orlando, FL on Monday to take on Stetson in the second annual Florida Citrus Sports Shootout as head coach Billy Donovan goes for his 400th career victory. The game will tip at 7 p.m. and air live on Sun Sports.

Photo Credit: Phil Sandlin/Associated Press

5 – Scottie Wilbekin (Gainesville, FL)
Sophomore guard
6’2” 178 lbs.

Quick Bio/2010-11 Season: A two-star recruit coming out of high school, Wilbekin skipped his senior season and accepted a scholarship to UF as a junior. A lifelong fan of the Gators, Wilbekin proved to be a capable backup point guard last year, spelling Walker when he was tired and also allowing him to play off the ball on occasion. He posted the best assist-to-turnover ratio on the team (2.2) and earned one start. Wilbekin scored a season-high 11 points against North Carolina A&T and handed out six dimes on two occasions last year. He was the first player to come in off the bench in 16 games and led Florida in assists in five different games.

2011-12 Outlook: Though he broke one of his fingers in practice and missed the exhibition game, Wilbekin will be healthy and is set to return for the start of the season. He will continue to serve as the primary backup point guard and a good backcourt defensive presence for UF, though it is unknown how often Donovan may go without one in order to get more shooters on the floor.

4 – Patric Young (Jacksonville, FL)
Sophomore forward/center
6’9” 247 lbs.

Quick Bio/2010-11 Season: A 2010 McDonald’s All-American, Parade Magazine second-team All-American and a five-star recruit out of high school, Young was the Gators’ top recruit one year ago. With a veteran frontcourt set as starters, he served as the primary reserve, playing 17.8 minutes per game off the bench (with two starts when Vernon Macklin got injured). Young averaged 3.4 points and 3.8 rebounds but also blocked a team-high 31 shots, earning his way onto the SEC All-Freshman team. He was the first player off the bench 22 times and dunked the ball 16 times. Young had the opportunity to leave for the NBA after the season but chose to stay for at least his sophomore year (if not beyond).

2011-12 Outlook: Moving into a starting role in his second year, Young is Florida’s primary frontcourt presence this season. His size, strength and athleticism makes him tough to defend, but his offensive game continues to be a work in progress. However, Young is an impressive defender who – if he can keep his fouls down – may very well find his way on some All-SEC teams at season’s end. “Pat is an absolute monster. Watching him workout this summer, he really impressed me. He competes and plays so hard and has a great motor and is all about the team and winning,” former Florida forward Chandler Parsons told OGGOA last week. “He’s going to have to play big all year long and lead the way rebounding. He’ll also have to step up and block shots as well as finish everything around the rim. I believe in him and think he has the potential to be one of the best centers in the conference.”

3 – Mike Rosario (Jersey City, NJ)
Redshirt junior guard
6’3” 191 lbs.

Quick Bio: A four-star recruit out of high school who signed with Rutgers and played there for two years, Rosario was just the second sophomore in team history to hit 1,000 career points. He was named a freshman All-American and Big East All-Rookie in his first when he set the team’s all-time freshman scoring mark with 517 points. As a sophomore, Rosario scored 16.7 points per game and led Rutgers in scoring 19 times with 28 double-digit scoring games and nine games in which he posted 20 or more points. He transferred to Florida one year ago and sat out the 2010-11 season.

2011-12 Outlook: Back in action once again, Rosario adds another dynamic scoring option to the Gators’ offense. He is also a solid defender who – like Walker – Donovan wants to learn to play within UF’s system. Rosario scored 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting (4-for-7 from downtown) with six assists and two steals during the exhibition game and was visibly excited to be playing college basketball gain. Though he may have hoped to be a starter for Florida, Rosario will instead play off the bench and will likely be the team’s primary sixth man. “The biggest thing for Mike is just being more and more consistent each and every day,” Donovan said. “We’ve got to be a very unselfish group, and Mike’s got a good feel of how to play. He’s smart, he’s intelligent. He’s competitive. He’s got to be an everyday guy though.”

1 – Kenny Boynton (Pompano Beach, FL)
Junior guard
6’2” 189 lbs.

Quick Bio: The No. 3 leading scorer in Florida high school basketball history, Boynton was a five-star recruit who has started all but two games in his entire Gators career. A McDonald’s All-American and Parade All-American who honored with a SEC All-Freshman nomination in 2009-10, he led UF in scoring his first year and posted a school-high 27 points against BYU in the NCAA Tournament that year. Boynton only shot 37.6 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from three in his first season but still managed to be an important part of Florida’s team.

2010-11 Season: Returning as a starter, Boynton averaged 14.6 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists while shooting slightly better from the field (38.5 percent) and downtown (33.1 percent). He made 82.3 percent of his foul shots and turned the ball over 15 fewer times than he did as a freshman. Boynton continued to be a streaky shooter but scored in double digits in each of the Gators’ final 16 games including every SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament contest. He was also named to the SEC All-Tournament Team and the All-SEC second team in 2010-11.

2011-12 Outlook: Boynton scored a team-high 21 points (on 6-of-11 shooting from downtown) in Florida’s exhibition game and said he has been working on being a more consistent shooter all offseason. “Instead of trying to change it [my form], I have just been getting more repetitions and get used to it.,” Boynton explained. “Basically getting more practice makes perfect, so I have been trying to shoot a lot of it every day.” His defense was a highlight throughout the 2010-11 season, and Donovan plans to continue playing him on the opposition’s best backcourt player each game. “He’s got a better understanding of shot selection. He is a consistent guy every single day. He gives you great effort. He works really hard. He’s a great kid and he wants to be a good player,” Donovan said.