Gators Must Keep Shooting

[IHateUGAlyDawgs]

As a shooter who never met a shot he didn’t like or wouldn’t take during his college days at Providence, Billy Donovan understands how shooting slumps come and go. He knows you can do everything right mechanically, get a great look at the basket and still you can’t get one to drop. That’s what his Florida Gators are going though right now and he knows they just have to keep shooting because that’s the only way to break out of the slump.

The Gators have gone stone cold from the three-point line lately. They’ve hit just 25 of their last 116 shots from behind the stripe. You don’t win a lot of games when you’re hitting 23.4 percent on three-pointers as the Gators’ 1-4 record in those last five games will attest.

Saturday, they hit rock bottom at Vanderbilt. They missed their first seven three-pointers, and after Dan Werner finally got one to fall, they missed their last seven including a couple of shots in the final seconds that could have tied the game and sent it to overtime. If the Gators go 2-15 in the game, they’re playing in overtime; 3-15 and they win the game.

Defensively, the Gators gave a good enough effort against Vandy to win the game --- a vast improvement over the previous four games in which they averaged giving up 84 points per game --- that there is hope and expectation of some sort of carryover the rest of the way. That kind of effort can put a team in position to win games.

It was effort that kept the Gators in the game Saturday against Vanderbilt (61-58 loss) because shots just wouldn’t fall. The Gators had some wide open shots from beyond the arc, but this was a day when they couldn’t buy a basket.

“We’ve had I think some pretty decent looks, and we obviously have to find ways to put the ball in basket because you go on a road and shoot six percent [from three] and 39 percent from the field, I think that probably one thing you would look at, knowing Vanderbilt, is that would be a blowout loss for us,” said Donovan, who goes after win number 20 Wednesday night when the Gators (19-7, 6-5 SEC East) host South Carolina (12-12, 4-6 SEC East) at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center (8 p.m., Raycom TV).

There was a point in the second half when it looked like Vanderbilt was going to blow the Gators out. It was 52-40 with 7:17 left in the game, but Florida rallied even without any outside shooting.

“We kept ourselves in the game because of our defense, our rebounding, making some smart hustle plays, making key plays in the middle of possessions that allowed us to hang around in the game and give us a chance,” said Donovan.

Florida would have had more than a chance if only the Gators could have hit shots. Donovan has been studying the films and he doesn’t believe that the Gators are doing anything wrong mechanically. He does, however, believe that there are some other elements that factor into this prolonged shooting slump.

“I think that there’s a process that they have got to go through with shooting the basketball,” he said. “Mechanically, I don’t see anything wrong with what they’re doing. I think there is an issue and I don’t want to say they are unfocused, but I think sometimes our guys are anxious make a shot that they don’t go through the process of what it takes to be shot ready … feet, hands, those type of things. We can be doing a better job with those things and that sometimes narrows your focus. I think a lot of times when you’re not shooting well you have a tendency to focus more on the result of the ball not going into the basket and you need to get back to understanding what the process is as a shooter.”

He won’t get an argument from freshman Nick Calathes, who is Florida’s leading scorer at 15.2 points per game. Calathes is 6-25 from the three-point line in the last five games.

He admits that this is the longest and most frustrating shooting slump he’s ever been in. At AAU Tournaments and at post-season all-star games prior to enrolling at Florida, Calathes was money from the three-point line in both three-point shooting contests and in games.

“I just have to keep shooting in the gym and getting extra shots up and I think they’ll start falling,” said Calathes. “I think I have to be ready, to be in position to take a shot, step in and knock it down. It’s a shooting slump and I have to get out of it and get out of it soon.”

Calathes, who leads the SEC in assists (6.1 per game) and is averaging 5.1 rebounds per game (third on the team), said that he’s been hitting his shots in practice.

“I’ve been knocking them down,” he said. “I work out every night and get extra shots up and I hit them. I just have to keep shooting. They’ll start falling.”

Donovan agrees that the Gators have to keep shooting but when the shots aren’t falling, he is looking for the team to stay in that same mindset of finding ways to put points on the board and stay in games.

“I thought the last five or six minutes of the game we got into a little bit of a flow there and were scoring a little bit, we got fouled and got on the break and good things happened,” he said. “We have got to play the game on the offensive end of the floor the right way and hopefully continue to instill confidence in them when they have shots that they are capable of making that they shoot the ball with great confidence and go through the process and the mechanics to do it the right way.”

While he can’t say when the shooting slump will end, as a former let-it-fly-from-anywhere type of shooter that shot Providence into a Final Four, he knows that shooters keep on shooting and sooner or later they bust loose.

“I do think we have a good enough shooting team that it can change game to game, that it can change on Wednesday,” he said.

TAKING THE BLAME: Calathes wouldn’t blame Jai Lucas for the over-and-back turnover with 19.8 seconds remaining that proved so costly. Lucas crossed midcourt as the Gators moved the ball down the floor for a chance at a game-winning shot. As two taller Vandy defenders approached, Lucas killed his dribble a step inside the Florida side of the midcourt line, pivoted and handed off to Calathes, who landed on the Vandy side, a critical violation. Florida was forced to foul and Alex Gordon hit two free throws that forced the Gators to launch three-pointers to try to tie the game in the final seconds.

“I think it was probably my fault,” said Calathes. “I wanted to get it over the court on the other side and he wanted to give it to me on our side of the court. I think it was my mistake.”

After the game, Lucas said the Vandy trap was a look that he hadn’t seen before and the turnover was a miscommunication between him and Calathes.

[annarborgator]

thanks for the article hater...good quotes there...love seeing Calathes step up and take responsibility [img]{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lmao.gif[/img] because of the other thread re:personal responsibility