Basketball practice is still in its infancy and without his top six scorers from last season, coach Billy Donovan is working with different combinations to figure out what works best.
One look on the perimeter during a weekend scrimmage featured three guards – freshmen Jai Lucas and Nick Calathes and junior Walter Hodge - on the court at the same time.
"Because of the lack of depth and the lack of numbers we have a lot of different combinations – some by design and some not," associate head coach Larry Shyatt said Monday. "Hopefully, that will be a blessing down the road because we may be forced into playing lineups we're not accustomed to."
Players seemed to like the three-guard look.
Said sophomore forward Dan Werner: "They had two McDonald's All-Americans and a guy who won two national championships. It was difficult but I thought we handled it pretty well. It all depends on matchups. We're very quick with those guys up there. We have some advantages."
Said sophomore forward Jonathan Mitchell: "They all can handle the ball and initiate the offense so it was a challenge. Coach (Donovan) probably wanted to see how it looked and go from there. It was pretty good. It was effective. At any given point any one of them can initiate the offense and lead the team."
Tinkering with lineups is expected with five freshmen, a recruiting class that was rated No. 1 by Rivals.com, three sophomores with limited experience and Hodge, who averaged 17.7 minutes per game last season. Shyatt said the coaching staff was disappointed in how the team responded after fatigue set in during the scrimmage. Age is not an acceptable excuse for lack of physicality, he said.
"Physically, everybody should be ready except (freshman forward) Adam Allen and he should be on the floor in a day," Shyatt said. "We're trying to make sure they know age is not the importance of the equation. It's a level of balance and discipline and making sure they know how to utilize their body well. There are different points in basketball where age and experience are very important but not when it comes to the physicality part."
Allen sprained his left shoulder and has missed a few days, which included the scrimmage. He said he should be back by Wednesday. Sitting on the sidelines was difficult.
"I felt like a bum on the sidelines just watching them play," Allen said. "It was tough. I wish I could've been out there but there will be plenty of time. I'll get on the court."
Sophomore forward/center Marreese Speights reportedly stepped outside frequently to shoot some jump shots and Shyatt was asked whether the coaching staff wanted Speights that far away from the basket. Shyatt said all nine players are encouraged to take open shots as long as time and score are not involved.
"We're comfortable when all nine of our scholarship players are open," he said. "Coach Donovan has made sure that they understand if there's a level of unselfishness then he wants them to feel like when we're open that's an opportunity we don't want to pass by."
Shyatt said no player has consistently sparkled through all of Florida's practices. Some players have done well on certain days and struggled other times. That is probably an issue of inexperience and dealing with new concepts thrown their way.
The Gators kick off their exhibition season Nov. 1 against Flagler. With such a young team, the right combination and rotation of players might not be determined for some time.
"We made a cognitive choice we weren't just going to fill in with scholarships and so we approach it every day and try to sort of listen to the heartbeat of our trainer and our strength coach and try to get the best combination of making these guys better," Shyatt said. "Different people have had different portions of practice but I don't think anybody has been stellar day after day. That's probably a product of inexperience all the way. We're talking about our older players like they're older players."