With a couple of team practices in and the first exhibition game scheduled for Thursday, Florida sees themselves in more questioning compared to last season.
Right now, the Gators are in a stand still and it starts with the current roster.
The NCAA ruled out Florida’s pursuit of getting USF transfer John Egbunu to play this season, Chris Walker won’t play the first three games due to violating team rules and Alex Murphy won’t be active until after the fall term.
That leaves Florida with guys who can’t play yet, freshmen learning the college basketball way, players coming off injuries and veterans who are currently held accountable to provide for the team.
“Well, I think beginning we’re probably handcuffed a little bit just because Alex Murphy’s a guy that can basically do a little bit more, but we haven’t really done a whole lot with that,” Donovan said. “With the way we’re practicing right now, our roster is going to look a little different once we start practice, the first couple games, because we’ll be without Chris (Walker), we’ll be without Alex. So our team’s a little bit different right now.”
Donovan has seen his veteran guys make improvements and establish a sense of leadership during practice for the fresh faces. He has also seen other players such as Eli Carter making strides of not missing any team practices and not sitting out due to being sore.
But the veteran coach doesn’t need superstar standout for the team to flourish, instead he wants the little things excluding scoring that will make a difference while on the court.
“I think Kasey Hill has made jumps, Dorian Finney-Smith has made steps, I think Michael Frazier has made some steps, Eli Carter has made some steps physically. That’s been good, but there’s so much more that goes into it,” Donovan said.
“Like a perfect example of that is Will Yuegete. Will Yuegete was probably one of the most underexposed guy on last year’s team and maybe would have been as related to winning one of the most valuable guys. You know, because of what he did out there each and every day. He understood the importance of that. We have nobody on our team that’s got that kind of mentality.”
Wondering if the players this year can carry some of the characteristics of the veterans from last year seems realistic, but this squad will have an identity of their own meshed in with the values of last year.
Devin Robinson, an outstanding scorer in high school is adjusting to not always having the ball in his hands and to not only be versatile with the ball, but without it.
“It’s different. I’m used to touching the ball a lot,” Robinson said. “Now I have to work on other things to make me a better player, and make the team better, like blocking shots, rebounding and other things that have nothing to do with scoring.”
Donovan’s theory of “95 to five percent” has been drilled in the player’s minds thus far and if they can collectively be great at a couple of things before the first game, the Gators have a better opportunity to display what they’ve mastered.