Gator Country

Florida junior forward Alex Tyus blocks a shot by Georgia Southern's Rory Spencer during the second half of the Gators' 69-49 win against the Eagles on Wednesday at the O'Connell Center. / photo by Tim Casey

It’s a good thing the Florida Gators weren’t standing on the end of the pier at high tide Wednesday night. The way they were shooting the ball, they would have missed the ocean completely. The last two years that might have been a real problem. Wednesday night? No big deal because this potentially new and improved version of the Gators for the second straight game looked like a team that’s buying in to that age-old maxim that you can actually win games with defense and rebounding if the shots aren’t falling. What a concept.

Against Georgia Southern Wednesday night in a game that would have made a great episode of WWE Raw except for the tricky little fact that there was actual physical contact that wasn’t scripted and rehearsed, the Gators launched 16 three-pointers and 14 of them were Scuds. Before you smack your palm to your forehead and scream about the bad shooting, let me remind you that by knocking down two three-pointers, the Gators actually doubled their output from Sunday. So we’re talking real progress here --- 100 percent improvement --- and this time we didn’t have to wait until the last minute for the first three-pointer to fall. Chandler Parsons, who knocked down the only three of the game Sunday on the 13th and final attempt from beyond the arc, saved the day once again and again he did it after 12 Scuds had been launched unsuccessfully.

The Gators were so inspired by Parsons’ three-pointer with 6:12 left in the game that they launched four more and actually knocked one down --- the first three of Kenny Boynton’s career --- with 2:39 remaining. On the progress meter, this is good stuff since it took 34:48 to launch one that actually found the bottom of the net and less than four minutes to get another one. That’s 25 percent shooting on the last four, not exactly Lee Humphrey-esque mind you, but 25 percent has a rather Stratospheric sound to it when you compare it to 7.6 percent, which is what 1-13 rounds out to.

Credit some of the bad shooting to Georgia Southern’s quart of blood technique defense. The Eagles certainly were physical and in the face of the Gators all night long and their no autopsy, no foul approach might have worked out quite well if only the zebras had collectively swallowed their whistles. Much to their chagrin, they didn’t. Two Eagles fouled out, four others collected four fouls and yet another clawed and scratched his way to three more. In all, there were 32 fouls called against Georgia Southern and most weren’t the ticky-tack variety. Two Eagles were called for intentional fouls and probably three others should have been called except the zebras were actually doing their best to show a measure of benevolence. The Gators shot 43 free throws (made 29) and if the zebras really had it in for Georgia Southern, the game would have lasted until midnight or when the last Eagle fouled, whichever came first.

In the two years since the Gators polished off Ohio State in Atlanta to win their second straight NCAA championship, the Gators have won a very respectable 49 games but they’ve lost 23 and they’ve missed the NCAA Tournament both years. Last year the Gators finished 25-11 and of those 11 losses, eight were by six or fewer points and six losses were by fewer than four. One more win in the regular season might have gotten them into the NCAA Tournament. Two would have for sure. Two wins in the SEC Tournament definitely would have.

There were three constants in nearly every loss last year --- poor shooting, lack of defensive intensity, not enough rebounds. You can rationalize poor shooting because there are nights when the ball refuses to go in the hoop. You can’t rationalize a lack of sweat on the defensive end or a failure to exert yourself to chase down a few extra rebounds. In nearly every loss last year, Billy Donovan resorted to calling out his team for its failure to defend and rebound so many times that he began to sound like the boy who cried wolf. The public got tired of hearing it and all those close losses tend to make you think his team really didn’t care enough to change. About the only time they were willing to exert themselves on the defensive end was late in games when they needed another possession or two if they were going to have any chance at winning. That kind of attitude landed them in the NIT for the second straight year.

So that brings us to this season and the first two games. Stetson and Georgia Southern aren’t exactly bragging rights victories --- the Gators are supposed to whip up on the Stetsons and Georgia Southerns of the world --- but they are a reasonably good yardstick for change that is ongoing. The Gators haven’t shot well at all and Donovan is at a loss to explain it since he’s never had a team start the season 3-29 from the three-point stripe but instead of having to explain a great escape win, like the one over Georgia Southern in Jacksonville two years ago, he can say he’s seeing a total team evolution take place right before his eyes.

“Two years ago against Georgia Southern we had a shooting performance like we had tonight and we ended up winning by one or two points at the buzzer,” Donovan said. “Tonight we were able to win by 20 and really be pretty woeful on offense shooting the ball and our guys won with their defense.”

The Gators seemed to believe they could shoot their way out of trouble the last two years. Through two games, Donovan has a team that keeps on firing away --- which is what you want them to do since you can’t bust a slump by refusing to shoot --- but instead of dwelling on the latest off-the-mark Scud, they’re turning their focus and energy back to the other end of the floor.

The poster child for this team that is in the process of re-inventing itself is Chandler Parsons, who spent his life in Nick Calathes’ shadow. It was always too easy when Nick was around. Any time Chandler got off to a bad start, he could always defer to his buddy for life and let Nick shoulder the load. When Calathes left Florida for a lucrative pro contract in Greece, Parsons was left with two choices --- grow up or get exposed. He chose to grow up and in doing a total basketball makeover, also grew a shaggy head of hair.

“I told Chandler after his freshman year where he needed to put his focus and I think Chandler thought his focus needed to be elsewhere,” Donovan said. “I really think he’s focused in on trying to address the things he has to do to get better as a player. I think the mental preparation that he’s put in during the offseason, the way he has practiced the last month and a half, his maturity as a player and a person ... he’s totally different.”

The totally different Parsons is the one teammate Ray Shipman said talks about defensive rotation and getting stops on the way to and out of team huddles. He’s the one that talks at halftime about players adjusting ever so slightly what they’re doing in the full court press so they can get steals and force bad passes. He has become the team’s garbage man, picking up the bulk of his points on hustle outside the offense, and he has grabbed 18 rebounds in two games including 12 Wednesday night.

Best of all, he’s doing it off the bench, bringing instant energy to the team whenever he comes into a game. Wednesday, he played four positions including two or three stretches at the point when Donovan tried to get both Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton into the offense as shooters. What made Parsons’ play all that more impressive was he played good, solid defense no matter what position he played.

Parsons wasn’t alone in showing his commitment to good defense. The Gators got it from the starters and from the guys coming off the bench, which is why Georgia Southern had a worse (18-55, 32.7 percent) shooting night than the Gators (19-56, 33.9 percent) if you care to imagine that. The Eagles were 4-18 from the three-point line but nearly every one of those shots was contested and they managed only nine offensive rebounds while Florida was hauling in 51 rebounds, 22 on the offensive end.

Beating Georgia Southern with good defense and rebounding is a good thing since every season has to start somewhere. The real test for the Gators will be getting the job done against the likes of Michigan State, Syracuse, North Carolina State, Xavier and the teams on Florida’s SEC schedule. There is no guarantee that Florida’s commitment to improved defense and rebounding will translate into wins over those very tough teams, but playing defense and chasing down rebounds at least gives you a fighting chance.

“They can see very, very clearly like, ‘wow, we ended up winning by 20 points and look what we shot from the field and the three-point line,’” Donovan said.

The shooting --- or lack of it --- isn’t that much a concern for Donovan, who understands it’s hard to shoot worse than 10.3 percent from the three-point stripe. There really is only one way to go and that’s up. He knows that Erving Walker will start hitting his threes and that it’s just a matter of time before Kenny Boynton starts lighting people up.

Donovan’s task will be to keep his team focused on improving their defensive efforts and continuing to hustle for rebounds. There are no guarantees of good shooting nights but even if you can’t find the ocean from the end of the pier, defense and rebounding can cure a lot of ills.

“The one thing I don’t want to have happen is I don’t want us to have a change of focus on what’s important,” Donovan said. “The most important is that we continue to defend and rebound to the best of our ability and then try to make those corrections on what we can do defensively.”

Defense? Rebounding? The Florida Gators? What a concept. 

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