Not far removed from a productive first two weeks of practice, the 11th-ranked Florida Gators men’s basketball team now has its focus squarely set on Thursday night’s exhibition opponent, Florida Tech.
There have been a few minor setbacks in recent days as sophomore forward Erik Murphy (ankle sprain) and freshman forward Cody Larson (illness) each missed a few practices. However, coach Billy Donovan said both 6-foot-9 underclassmen are ready to go.
Also ready to go are the five veteran starters.
“(We’re excited about) just getting out there and playing the game, trying to get some chemistry down with the new guys and the whole team from last year,” senior power forward Alex Tyus said.
Donovan said he is looking forward to mixing and matching his five returning starters with the much-improved Murphy and UF’s five-player freshmen class. One unique lineup made its debut in practice last weekend.
There, for the first time, Donovan called for 6-10, 240-pound senior Vernon Macklin and 6-9, 245-pound freshman Patric Young, both former McDonald’s All-Americans, to play together. In order to not give Young too much to learn, Macklin made the move to power forward.
“We were kind of surprised when coach put us on the same team because we hadn’t really worked on that too much,” said Young, who added he will have eight friends and family drive down from Jacksonville for the game. “But we kind of actually fit together because he was like ‘I’m going to look for you on the double-team and you should always look for me on the double-team, too.’
“So, I was (thinking) I guess we will fit together real well on the court.”
The big lineup had its good and bad moments, as the group dominated on the glass, but with Young still learning the intricacies of Donovan’s system, the offense didn’t run perfectly at times.
That fivesome also included 6-10 senior Chandler Parsons at small forward, as well as the usual starting backcourt of 5-8 junior Erving Walker and 6-2 sophomore Kenny Boynton. And Parsons added he believes there could be times where UF goes even bigger with him at the point, 6-6 Casey Prather playing shooting guard and the 6-8 Tyus at the 3.
“We have a lot of different directions we can go with this team,” Parsons said. “It’s nice.”
YOUNG MOVES: Young said he can tell in practice that he has improved his low-post moves and his mid-range jump shot. Coming out of Jacksonville Providence, there were no questions about his defense, hustle, strength and tenacity, but his offensive game was (and remains) a work-in-progress.
Young’s sister, Sara, played golf at Florida State, and Patric is an avid golfer. He owns clubs designed for his long frame and proudly added “they have my name on them, too.” Sara, who Patric said is planning to be in attendance Thursday night, is working on getting her LPGA Tour card. Young said he hasn’t been on the links in a while, but went to the driving range a few weeks back.
GROWING UP: Donovan said Parsons has matured a great deal since his sophomore year. The coach said he feared Parsons would not improve much in the year following his freshman season because he had a good bit of success his first year at UF.
Donovan added that after a so-so sophomore campaign, Parsons has worked extremely hard to continue bettering himself and the results have been and will continue to be evident. Last year, Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl referred to Parsons as “the most improved player in the SEC and one of the most improved players in the country.”
SCOUTING REPORT: The top two returners for Florida Tech are 6-9, 230-pound senior forward Justin Sedlak (20.1 points per game, 8.4 rebounds per game) and 6-1, 205-pound junior guard Simon Cummings (18 ppg, 4.0 apg). Florida has never met the Panthers (14-13 overall, 4-12 in the Sunshine State Conference in 2009-10) in the regular season or during exhibition play.