Coach Billy Donovan might have been overstating the case a little bit but all Florida has to do is look at recent history to realize it could have a battle on its hands against North Dakota State in the season opener Friday night.
The Bison, who upset Wisconsin and Marquette in the last two seasons, return three players who average 15 points or more and two grabbed six or more rebounds per game last season. Florida is expected to start two freshmen, two sophomores who did not see many significant minutes and junior Walter Hodge, who averaged about 18 minutes off the bench a year ago.
To further convince Florida it's in for a game against North Dakota State, all Donovan has to do is show his players the final score of the Kentucky-Gardner-Webb game from Wednesday night. Gardner-Webb 84, Kentucky, 68. The Gators have some vulnerabilities heading into its season opener and Donovan wanted to make that a point when he met with the media on Wednesday.
"This is as hard of a season-opening basketball game as we've ever had since I've been here just based on the youthfulness of our team and so many new faces and pieces and then playing against a basketball team that's really good," Donovan said. "They're a physical team. They're an older team. They're a highly intelligent basketball team. They rebound the ball very well. They get to the free throw line.
"They shot 50 percent from the field last year. They run a motion offense. They have a lot of different guys inside their system that can beat you. This will be an unbelievable challenge going into it. It would be a phenomenal win for our basketball team to find a way to win."
Florida averaged 99 points in two exhibition wins over Division II schools Flagler and Lynn. Freshman guard Nick Calathes had 18 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists and sophomore Marreese Speights added 22 points and 13 boards in the win over Flagler. Speights had 18 points, seven rebounds and four blocks against Lynn to lead six Florida players in double figures. Calathes added nine points and six assists.
"Nick is a guy that has a great quality that he's a basketball player," Donovan said. "He's a position-less guy to me. He can play the point. He can play the two. He can play the three. He has a real good understanding of what's going on. He has an innate feel of how to play the game and he's highly competitive and he has a tremendous eagerness to want to get better. When he's playing the right way he has the ability to make the game easy for everyone around him."
Donovan will look for better performances from sophomores Dan Werner and Jonathan Mitchell. Werner is 1-for-11 from the field in two exhibition wins and has three points. Mitchell banked in a 3-pointer and scored on a breakaway dunk in the win over Lynn. Both went scoreless in Florida's exhibition opener.
Junior guard Ben Woodside led North Dakota State with 16.4 points and 5.1 assists per game last season. Junior forward Brett Winkleman averaged 16.1 points and 6.8 rebounds and junior guard Mike Nelson was good for 15.7 points and 2.9 assists. Winkleman scored 20 and Nelson had 19 in an 80-56 exhibition win over Bemidji State. Nelson had 16 points and five steals and redshirt freshman forward Michael Tveidt added 11 points and 10 rebounds in a 79-66 decision over Minnesota State Moorhead.
"These kids haven't proved anything," Donovan said of the Gators. "They haven't done anything. These guys haven't won a game yet in college basketball. A lot of it's based on what's happened here in the past. It's not a realistic question. Dan Werner, Jonathan Mitchell and Marreese Speights have never been in a significant basketball game with the game on the line time- and score-wise. They've gotten in a lot of times at the end of the game when the game was over with.
"And then we have five freshmen who have never been in a college basketball game at all, so for us I don't care if it's North Dakota State. I don't care if it's Kansas. I don't care if it's UCLA. I don't care if it's Gonzaga. We have to go out there and play with an incredible sense of urgency to even give ourselves a chance to be in the game and I think our guys understand that. That's the respect we have to have for the game and who we're playing. I hope our guys wouldn't be that way after never really being on the floor in significant minutes, to think, wow, it's North Dakota State. We're just going to win."