Finding their focus
Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:48 am
At one point in the first half of Wednesday night’s first round National Invitation Tournament game at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, Billy Donovan saw something he had been waiting to see all season long. Sure, it took 33 games for it to happen, but Donovan saw some progress and considering the Gators were 0-for-March coming into this game with San Diego State, progress is a really good thing.
It happened on the defensive end of the floor, not exactly a place where a lot of progress has been made lately. In the last four games in particular, the Gators have had far too many defensive lapses but instead of someone forgetting an assignment or slacking off, Donovan saw rotation. You can’t talk good defense in basketball without talking rotation.
“We rotated and we helped each other,” said Donovan after Florida (22-11) shut down San Diego State, 73-49, before a sparse crowd of 5,188 at the O-Dome. “I told them in the first half that it was the first time all season I’d seen on one possession when the possession started and by the end of the possession no one had the same man because they had all rotated and helped each other.”
Maybe rotating defensively in an NIT game in March doesn’t qualify as one giant leap for mankind, but it is a small but welcome step that likely has its roots in Donovan shutting down the state of the art Florida practice facility early in the week. Instead of the plush locker room and all the amenities of the practice facility, Donovan made the Gators practice on the auxiliary courts at the O-Dome and over at Florida Gym. They had to wear their own practice clothes. The clean, crisp Florida uniforms that are provided daily were locked up back at the practice facility. They had to launder their own practice clothes.
“My coach in high school did it one time and I’ve seen it before but this is a whole new level,” said freshman forward Adam Allen, who scored three points and played solid defense in 15 minutes off the bench. “My girlfriend hates me right now because she’s done all my laundry.”
Donovan brought the Gators down to earth for a couple of reasons. First off, he wanted their undivided attention after a sloppy first round loss to Alabama that was sort of the culmination of a lot of things that had been building all season long. Secondly, he wanted them to realize that this is a program that was built on the sweat and sacrifices of players who never had all the benefits of state of the art facilities for practice and massage therapists and the like.
“I think that you just have to have a level of humility and an understanding of what goes into it,” said Donovan. “They’re not practicing anywhere different than where Haslem, Miller, Brent Wright, Major Parker, Donnell Harvey and that Final Four team (2000) practiced. They’re practicing on the same court those guys practiced on so to me it’s not all that bad. If it wasn’t bad for them and those kids, it’s certainly not bad for our guys. They need to understand sometimes the tradition of what we’re trying to build. What we’re trying to build is to get them to understand that there have been some guys before them, here’s what they had, here’s what you have. We need to earn and respect where we’re at right now.”
It certainly got the Gators’ attention. They played defense Wednesday night with an intensity rarely seen this season. Perhaps the play that personified the effort came late in the first half when Jai Lucas raced in front of 6-8, 257-pound Ryan Amoroso and stripped him of the ball as he was going up for a layup that would have cut Florida’s lead to 28-22. Lucas snatched the ball out of Amoroso’s hands and passed the ball inbounds to Walter Hodge before he went out of bounds. Hodge forwarded the ball to Nick Calathes who dribbled across half court and pulled up at the three-point line in transition. He buried the three.
“The goal was to keep them under 50 points and we held them to 49,” said freshman Chandler Parsons, who contributed five points, six rebounds, an assist and a steal off the bench. “I think we played better team defense tonight. Guys were there on the help side and keeping their man in front of them. We’ve got things to improve but I think we did a much better job tonight on defense than we’ve done recently.”
The newfound emphasis on defense was evident in the way the Gators took on the Aztecs. Instead of the zones that have been the staple since Southeastern Conference play began back in January, the Gators played San Diego State straight up man-to-man. They forced the Aztecs out of their comfort range and made them set up their offense a good five feet further out than normal. That helped to take Lorrenzo Wade, San Diego State’s leading scorer out of his rhythm. Wade scored 11 points but four of them came on snowbird layups when the Gators send four players crashing the boards and didn’t have anyone back on defense.
Another clear indication of Florida’s renewed intensity was in the first half when Werner finished up around the basket with a stick-back with 9:17 remaining, the third offensive rebound and fourth shot of a slug-it-out possession that began with a missed baby hook by Marreese Speights. For about eight seconds, it was like a joust at the net in a volleyball match because they Gators kept rebounding and sticking back shots until Werner got his to drop, making it a 24-12 game.
Florida out-rebounded San Diego State 35-22 and the Gators held an 11-6 advantage on offensive rebounds. The Gators outscored the Aztecs, 13-6, on second chance points. Parsons, Speights and Alex Tyus led Florida’s rebounding with six each. Tyus also contributed three blocked shots.
Florida held San Diego State to 42.9 percent shooting from the field and only 4-12 from the three-point line. The Aztecs wanted to take more three-point shots, but they couldn’t get open looks because the Gators were consistently in their faces.
San Diego State managed to tie the game at 9-9 with 14:13 left in the first half but that was the only time it was even close. The Gators punched out a 35-23 halftime lead and then they extended it to a 21-point lead (55-34) in the first ten minutes of the second half.
The Gators outscored the Aztecs 40-28 in the paint and they scored 20 points off 14 San Diego State turnovers.
Speights, held to four points on 2-7 shooting in the first half, went 6-7 from the field in the second half. It was his flurry of six of Florida’s eight points that stretched the lead to 25 points at 71-46 with 2:46 left in the game. Speights led the Gators with 18 points while Calathes finished with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists.
The Gators advance to the second round of the NIT Friday night when they play host to Creighton (9:30 p.m., Stephen C. O’Connell Center, ESPN), which beat Rhode Island in its first round game. Just because the Gators came up big defensively and made it pay off to win one game doesn’t mean they will revert back to their old ways next game, said Lucas, who says Donovan’s booting the team out of the practice facility was a necessity.
“It really was necessary because it put everything in focus,” said Lucas, whose line score read eight points, four assists and two steals. “I think we have a better focus now but we have to get better. We can’t get complacent just because we got one win.”
Getting the team to understand that the things they do this year will have a carryover into next year is important for Donovan. During a week that he’s been taken to the mat more than once by national pundits have ripped him for his post-game remarks from the Alabama game last week, Donovan has kept reminding his team that they are putting in a foundation. A foundation is necessary because Florida was wiped out of its experience and productivity after last year’s national championship season. No team in the nation lost more of its scoring and rebounding than the Gators and no team in the nation is younger and more inexperienced than this edition.
“These young guys are going to be in our program hopefully for awhile,” said Donovan. “I have to get them to somehow understand how to teach the next crop of guys that are coming in next year but if there’s not a foundation laid down and they don’t gain anything from this experience, then it’s really been a wasted year. I don’t want that to happen. It’s not about the record. It’s really about what did you learn and what you learned, can you apply it in the right fashion so you can view it to get better?”
The Gators were better Wednesday night. Yes, it comes late in the season and yes, it does make you wonder what could have been if they had played with this kind of intensity and determination the entire season, but in a season where progress has been too often measured in baby steps, this was a good and necessary win. It doesn’t mean they will play the same way Friday night against Creighton, but it does give them a foundation to build on.
The potential is there to play four more games and salvage a season with some sort of championship. That would be a fine ending to a season that has had its share of disappointments but right now, the only ending the Gators should be thinking about is the one Friday night. If they win, they advance and play again. Maybe it is the NIT, but there are a lot of teams that would trade places right now.
It happened on the defensive end of the floor, not exactly a place where a lot of progress has been made lately. In the last four games in particular, the Gators have had far too many defensive lapses but instead of someone forgetting an assignment or slacking off, Donovan saw rotation. You can’t talk good defense in basketball without talking rotation.
“We rotated and we helped each other,” said Donovan after Florida (22-11) shut down San Diego State, 73-49, before a sparse crowd of 5,188 at the O-Dome. “I told them in the first half that it was the first time all season I’d seen on one possession when the possession started and by the end of the possession no one had the same man because they had all rotated and helped each other.”
Maybe rotating defensively in an NIT game in March doesn’t qualify as one giant leap for mankind, but it is a small but welcome step that likely has its roots in Donovan shutting down the state of the art Florida practice facility early in the week. Instead of the plush locker room and all the amenities of the practice facility, Donovan made the Gators practice on the auxiliary courts at the O-Dome and over at Florida Gym. They had to wear their own practice clothes. The clean, crisp Florida uniforms that are provided daily were locked up back at the practice facility. They had to launder their own practice clothes.
“My coach in high school did it one time and I’ve seen it before but this is a whole new level,” said freshman forward Adam Allen, who scored three points and played solid defense in 15 minutes off the bench. “My girlfriend hates me right now because she’s done all my laundry.”
Donovan brought the Gators down to earth for a couple of reasons. First off, he wanted their undivided attention after a sloppy first round loss to Alabama that was sort of the culmination of a lot of things that had been building all season long. Secondly, he wanted them to realize that this is a program that was built on the sweat and sacrifices of players who never had all the benefits of state of the art facilities for practice and massage therapists and the like.
“I think that you just have to have a level of humility and an understanding of what goes into it,” said Donovan. “They’re not practicing anywhere different than where Haslem, Miller, Brent Wright, Major Parker, Donnell Harvey and that Final Four team (2000) practiced. They’re practicing on the same court those guys practiced on so to me it’s not all that bad. If it wasn’t bad for them and those kids, it’s certainly not bad for our guys. They need to understand sometimes the tradition of what we’re trying to build. What we’re trying to build is to get them to understand that there have been some guys before them, here’s what they had, here’s what you have. We need to earn and respect where we’re at right now.”
It certainly got the Gators’ attention. They played defense Wednesday night with an intensity rarely seen this season. Perhaps the play that personified the effort came late in the first half when Jai Lucas raced in front of 6-8, 257-pound Ryan Amoroso and stripped him of the ball as he was going up for a layup that would have cut Florida’s lead to 28-22. Lucas snatched the ball out of Amoroso’s hands and passed the ball inbounds to Walter Hodge before he went out of bounds. Hodge forwarded the ball to Nick Calathes who dribbled across half court and pulled up at the three-point line in transition. He buried the three.
“The goal was to keep them under 50 points and we held them to 49,” said freshman Chandler Parsons, who contributed five points, six rebounds, an assist and a steal off the bench. “I think we played better team defense tonight. Guys were there on the help side and keeping their man in front of them. We’ve got things to improve but I think we did a much better job tonight on defense than we’ve done recently.”
The newfound emphasis on defense was evident in the way the Gators took on the Aztecs. Instead of the zones that have been the staple since Southeastern Conference play began back in January, the Gators played San Diego State straight up man-to-man. They forced the Aztecs out of their comfort range and made them set up their offense a good five feet further out than normal. That helped to take Lorrenzo Wade, San Diego State’s leading scorer out of his rhythm. Wade scored 11 points but four of them came on snowbird layups when the Gators send four players crashing the boards and didn’t have anyone back on defense.
Another clear indication of Florida’s renewed intensity was in the first half when Werner finished up around the basket with a stick-back with 9:17 remaining, the third offensive rebound and fourth shot of a slug-it-out possession that began with a missed baby hook by Marreese Speights. For about eight seconds, it was like a joust at the net in a volleyball match because they Gators kept rebounding and sticking back shots until Werner got his to drop, making it a 24-12 game.
Florida out-rebounded San Diego State 35-22 and the Gators held an 11-6 advantage on offensive rebounds. The Gators outscored the Aztecs, 13-6, on second chance points. Parsons, Speights and Alex Tyus led Florida’s rebounding with six each. Tyus also contributed three blocked shots.
Florida held San Diego State to 42.9 percent shooting from the field and only 4-12 from the three-point line. The Aztecs wanted to take more three-point shots, but they couldn’t get open looks because the Gators were consistently in their faces.
San Diego State managed to tie the game at 9-9 with 14:13 left in the first half but that was the only time it was even close. The Gators punched out a 35-23 halftime lead and then they extended it to a 21-point lead (55-34) in the first ten minutes of the second half.
The Gators outscored the Aztecs 40-28 in the paint and they scored 20 points off 14 San Diego State turnovers.
Speights, held to four points on 2-7 shooting in the first half, went 6-7 from the field in the second half. It was his flurry of six of Florida’s eight points that stretched the lead to 25 points at 71-46 with 2:46 left in the game. Speights led the Gators with 18 points while Calathes finished with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists.
The Gators advance to the second round of the NIT Friday night when they play host to Creighton (9:30 p.m., Stephen C. O’Connell Center, ESPN), which beat Rhode Island in its first round game. Just because the Gators came up big defensively and made it pay off to win one game doesn’t mean they will revert back to their old ways next game, said Lucas, who says Donovan’s booting the team out of the practice facility was a necessity.
“It really was necessary because it put everything in focus,” said Lucas, whose line score read eight points, four assists and two steals. “I think we have a better focus now but we have to get better. We can’t get complacent just because we got one win.”
Getting the team to understand that the things they do this year will have a carryover into next year is important for Donovan. During a week that he’s been taken to the mat more than once by national pundits have ripped him for his post-game remarks from the Alabama game last week, Donovan has kept reminding his team that they are putting in a foundation. A foundation is necessary because Florida was wiped out of its experience and productivity after last year’s national championship season. No team in the nation lost more of its scoring and rebounding than the Gators and no team in the nation is younger and more inexperienced than this edition.
“These young guys are going to be in our program hopefully for awhile,” said Donovan. “I have to get them to somehow understand how to teach the next crop of guys that are coming in next year but if there’s not a foundation laid down and they don’t gain anything from this experience, then it’s really been a wasted year. I don’t want that to happen. It’s not about the record. It’s really about what did you learn and what you learned, can you apply it in the right fashion so you can view it to get better?”
The Gators were better Wednesday night. Yes, it comes late in the season and yes, it does make you wonder what could have been if they had played with this kind of intensity and determination the entire season, but in a season where progress has been too often measured in baby steps, this was a good and necessary win. It doesn’t mean they will play the same way Friday night against Creighton, but it does give them a foundation to build on.
The potential is there to play four more games and salvage a season with some sort of championship. That would be a fine ending to a season that has had its share of disappointments but right now, the only ending the Gators should be thinking about is the one Friday night. If they win, they advance and play again. Maybe it is the NIT, but there are a lot of teams that would trade places right now.