At some point, effort alone has to give way to commitment. Billy Donovan sees plenty of effort when his Florida Gators play defense. What he doesn’t see is commitment, although he’s pretty sure that he’s closer to it now than he was last year.
“Compared to the way they practiced last year to the way they are practicing now is totally different,” said Donovan after the Gators improved to 6-1 on the season with a 73-58 win over Florida A&M before an announced crowd of 10,007 at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Tuesday night. “The next step in their development is do they get to a commitment level?”
When Donovan talks about commitment, most of the time it’s about defense, which is an area that his players seem to talk about a lot. Talking about it and doing something about it seem to be two different things.
While the Gators are getting more steals and definitely hustling more than they did last year on the defensive end, there are still far too many mental mistakes and breakdowns. Tuesday night they held FAMU to 30.4 percent from the field in the first half and only 3-11 from the three-point line.
The second half was a different story. Led by Lamar Twitty and Brandon Bryant, the Rattlers went 8-13 from the three-point line in the second half. Instead of a runaway win over a team that lacks the size and talent, the Gators pretty much spent the second half treading water because nobody seemed to get a hand in the face of FAMU’s shooters.
That led Donovan to sit veterans Walter Hodge (only senior on the team) and Dan Werner (only junior on the team) for long stretches.
“We had Dan Werner giving up threes; we had Walter Hodge giving up threes,” said Donovan. “We had some guys really falling asleep, older guys that you would think that could take some of those shots away.”
The Gators were never in danger of losing this game but their lack of defensive effort was frustrating to watch. Equally frustrating to Donovan was the lack of patience on the offensive end. FAMU was committed to run the shot clock down to the last 7-8 seconds then launch a three-ball. The Gators seemed committed to firing up the first available shot.
The impatience probably had something to do with the way the Gators came out shooting from the field. When it seemed they couldn’t miss from beyond the three-point line — the Gators hit six of their first eight three-point shots — the offense seemed to gravitate into a long distance shooting frenzy. FAMU was committed to play a zone, but when the Gators shot the Rattlers out of it in the opening 10 minutes, driving lanes opened up and there were possibilities to establish an inside presence.
Florida led at the half, 37-22, but it shouldn’t have been that close. That inability to recognize what they had available and their inconsistency in moving the ball to get better shots was frustrating for Donovan, who understands that until his team shows some growth and maturity that there are going to be nights like this. The Gators are 6-1 but he says they aren’t playing well and he’s right.
“The sign of immaturity and youthfulness is when you have a lack of consistency and I think that’s what we have,” he said. “When I say our team is not playing well, I think it’s a sign of youthfulness. Generally young teams are inconsistent. The two guys we have to get more consistent are Hodge and Werner.”
As the last links to the NCAA championship years of 2006-07, Donovan has higher expectations of his older players.
Sunday against Missouri-Kansas City, Hodge scored five points. He followed that up with three against FAMU. Hodge got into early foul trouble and he sat most of the second half.
Werner had nine against UMKC but Tuesday night he managed just three points. He did have five rebounds, four assists and a steal, however.
“Dan went 1-5 from the field,” said Donovan. “He had four assists but I thought he could have done a lot more. Walter had two quick fouls and never got into the flow of things. Two of our older guys I think can provide more for our team and we have to find ways as a coaching staff to get them to provide more.”
But it’s more than just Werner and Hodge that have to step up their games. It’s a whole team thing, particularly on the defensive end. The Gators have enough skilled offensive players that there will be nights when they can simply outshoot anyone on the schedule. One hot shooter can carry a team to a win on any given night.
The problem is on those nights when the shots don’t fall. One player committed to great defense won’t stop the other team. It takes five players working together. It takes five players that want to get the job done.
“We have to want to get stops,” said sophomore point guard Nick Calathes, who led the Gators with 16 points seven assists, five rebounds and three steals. “I think it’s all of us. It can’t be just one guy. It has to be all of us. We have to want it.”
They have been talking about wanting it for the last two years but perhaps it has reached the point where they are willing to stop the talk and take the next step toward becoming a competent defensive team.
“It comes within,” said sophomore forward Chandler Parsons, who built off the momentum of a 17-point slump breaker against UMKC Sunday with 15 points Tuesday night including four on a pair of spectacular dunk backs when he came flying in from the wing on the offensive glass. “It’s either we have it or we don’t. The coaching staff has a standard they have here and we’re not living up to it on the defensive end. We have to start playing with more passion, fire and energy, diving on the floor and taking charges. We have to get more excited about on the defensive end when we get stops than when we score on the offensive end.”
“We’ve been talking about it for awhile but we have to get together as a team and look at ourselves in the mirror and really think that if we want to be as good as I think all our guys want to be then we have to start getting stops and stuff like that. If we want to be one of the best teams in the country and we want to compete in the NCAA Tournament, we have to play defense and we’re not doing that right now.”
The talk will end and the defense will actually take off when Donovan gets the commitment he’s looking for. Effort alone, he says, just won’t cut it.
“I’ve said this many times and I think it’s true — just because you give great effort and you work hard doesn’t mean you’re committed to something,” said Donovan. “I would say we have to find a way to get some guys committed to doing some of those things. There has to be a commitment level. They’re working hard and for me as a coach I’ve seen some strides.
“There is a difference between commitment and effort to me. A lot of teams give great effort. A lot of individual players give great effort but when you have a commitment to something that’s something you really focus on. They’re working at it, but I wouldn’t say we’re committed to it yet.”
GAME NOTES: Sophomore center Alex Tyus followed up his 25-point, eight rebound effort against UMKC with 15 points and six rebounds … Freshman Erving Walker had his second straight game with 13 points … Donovan had to like the play of freshman Ray Shipman off the bench. Shipman hustled his way to four points, five rebounds and a steal … The Gators committed a season low six turnovers while forcing FAMU into 16. The Gators scored 20 points off FAMU turnovers … The Gators have forced at least 13 turnovers in all seven of their games so far this year … Parsons, who was 1-14 to start the season from the three-point line, has hit six of his last 10 … Calathes turned the ball over five times against UMKC but he rebounded with a zero turnover game against FAMU.