Gator Country

Florida head coach Billy Donovan speaks to his team during the Gators' preparation for the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament on Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. / Gator Country photo by Tim Casey

NASHVILLE, TN --- Even more frustrating than missing shots he’s hit all his life were the close-call losses, six games decided by six or fewer points. When Kenny Boynton looks back on a freshman year that has been the biggest learning experience of his life, he remembers things like layups that hung on the rim before rolling off the wrong way, rebounds he might have had if he had held his position on the block out just a split second longer, loose balls that he knows he should have gotten to.

“Missing shots … I mean, that’s really frustrating to miss shots I’ve always made but the little things bug me more,” Boynton said Wednesday afternoon after the Florida Gators (20-11, 9-7 SEC East) completed practice at Bridgestone Arena on the eve of their opening round game (6:30 p.m. CST) with Auburn (15-16, 6-10 SEC West) in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

If there is one thing Boynton has learned during this initiation year to college basketball, it is you can’t stress the little things enough. In high school, both at Pompano Beach Ely, which he led to a state championship as a sophomore, and his final two seasons at American Heritage, Boynton was usually the most talented player on the court and everything was easy for him. He averaged more than 30 points per game and when his outside shot was off, he could always chase the ball down and load up another shot or take the ball to the rack where he seemed to be able to score at will.

He got away with that in high school. He knew the transition to the college game would be difficult, but one of the first lessons learned was that the team that shoots best doesn’t always win.

“Coach (Donovan) always stresses ‘do the little things that affect winning’ … he does that every day in practice and before every game,” Boynton said. “Any time you shoot it’s 50-50 whether it goes in, but every single play you can work harder or try harder or hustle a little bit more. Even when you’re shot doesn’t fall, you can still help the team.”

In high school, the best way Boynton could help the team was by scoring a lot of points. During his freshman year at Florida, he leads the Gators in scoring (13.5 per game) but he has far too many moments when the shots clanged off the iron. While his shot has been up and down, his defense has been so consistently good that Donovan says Boynton is the best freshman defender he’s ever had at Florida and that includes Corey Brewer, whose defense was his lottery ticket to the NBA Draft.

Playing great defense, Boynton says, is one of those “little things” that he can do every night that helps to put the Gators in position to win games. Little things include remembering to block out every time a shot goes up, making the extra pass to get the ball to an open teammate, chasing down long rebounds when a teammate launches a three to give the Gators an extra possession and throwing your body on the floor to try to come up with a loose ball.

When he looks back at those six close-call losses, Boynton just shakes his head to think about how the Gators could have won those games if they had simply saved a possession here or there or if they had worked a little harder to get a defensive stop.

“Even in the games we lost when we didn’t shoot so good we still could have won them,” he said. “You watch the film and you see all the little things you could do that could have helped you win. People remember that last shot that maybe didn’t go but they don’t think about when you didn’t stop someone or you turned the ball over. Things like that make a difference.”

The Gators lost their final three games which cost them a chance at clinching their spot in the NCAA Tournament field. If they had won even one of those last three games, they would still have to win against Auburn. Boynton says the Gators come into the game with a clean slate and a chance to do what they couldn’t do in those last few games.

“It’s a brand new season for us,” Boynton said. “Everybody is 0-0 right now so everybody starts out the same. We’re the same as Auburn and everybody else. This is a second chance for us but we have to do all the little things if we’re going to win.”

* * *

The SEC Tournament is indeed a second chance for the Gators to prove they’re worthy to make the NCAA Tournament. Vern Macklin can relate. This entire season has been a second chance for him after sitting out last season as a Georgetown transfer.

“The whole season has been about getting confident again,” Macklin said. “It took awhile. At Georgetown I backed up Roy (Hibbert) so there wasn’t a lot expected of me. Here, I’ve had to get used to playing again and getting used to my teammates relying on me. Everything revolved around Roy at Georgetown so I didn’t have a lot of responsibility on my shoulders.”

His season has been one of gradual improvement. He comes into the SEC Tournament averaging 10.6 points per game for the entire year but in the last seven games of the regular season he came in at 13.3 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.

When he looks at what he’s accomplished, he feels he has gradually started getting back that confident swagger he had when he was the nation’s #7 rated recruit coming out of Hargrave Military Academy.

“I think I got better,” he said. “I think I’m more confident now than I was when we started the season. I know I could do a lot of things different and better, though.”

The SEC Tournament is all about doing things differently and better. Macklin knows the Gators could easily have a 24-7 or 25-6 record coming into the tournament but there’s nothing that can be done about those six losses by six or fewer points.

There is something that can be done about what happens from this moment forward.

“The tournament gives you a second chance,” he said. “You get a clean start and you can do a better job than you did earlier in the year. I know there a lot of things I can do better and we can do better as a team. We can all do some things different.”

* * *

The Gators turned the SEC Tournament into their own personal playground in Atlanta during Dan Werner’s freshman year. When they had romped through three teams, finishing off Arkansas in the championship game at the Georgia Dome, Joakim Noah danced on television for a national audience. The Gators went on to a number one national seed and a six-game run that led to their second straight NCAA championship.

Werner wondered just how tough it could be?

“I thought this was the way it was going to be every year,” Werner admitted. “I thought we’d win a couple more championships before I left here.”

Instead of championships there have been two disappointing trips to the National Invitational Tournament. As a sophomore, the Gators needed to beat Alabama in the first round to make it to the NCAA Tournament. As a junior, they needed a second round win over Auburn.

Both times the Gators lost and both times they had to settle for the NIT. So it’s an all-too familiar scenario for Werner this time around. He’s a senior so this is his last chance to get back to the NCAA Tournament and once again it requires a good showing in the SEC Tournament.

“Yeah, I thought we would be in the NCAA every year I’ve been here,” Werner said. “We needed to do something at the SEC the last two years and we didn’t get it done.  This is my last chance. So yeah, this is pretty important to me.”

A second chance for Werner means a chance to erase some not so pleasant senior season memories. While he has played hard and well on defense and done a lot of other good things, he hasn’t shot the ball well. He’s not expecting to light up the scoreboard in the SEC Tournament but he does know he can contribute to getting the Gators back to the NCAA Tournament.

“We need to beat Auburn,” he said. “Then if we win that one, we get to play Mississippi State. We know we can play with anybody. We know we can beat anybody but we can’t talk about it. We have to do it.

“It’s a second chance for us to get in the NCAA Tournament. It’s in our hands. All we have to do is win.”

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