Billy Donovan was not happy. After a long and somewhat frustrating practice with his team, he was standing back and watching as the losing squad of a scrimmage ran sprints. It’s standard for that to happen and of course one squad always has to lose. Billy was miffed because the sprints weren’t over yet as they should have been, long ago.
Standing a little farther away was Eli Carter. The redshirt junior guard was on the winning scrimmage squad so he was able to catch his breath while waiting for practice to officially be called. He continued to wait for a while as Devin Robinson, winded from practice, failed to complete the sprint in time. Billy sent him again, then again, then again with Robinson failing to finish in the allotted time every time. Finally it was enough.
Carter walked out to the court, grabbed Robinson’s jersey and dragged him through the sprint. He never said a word, just helped him finish in time.
That’s what Billy Donovan had been waiting for.
Kassidy Extra: I would be remiss if I didn’t stop right here and acknowledge that this was basically a basketball version of the greatest moment in sports cinematic history.
As practice was dismissed, neither Carter or Robinson made a peep but their actions said enough to give Donovan a moment of peace in what has otherwise been a fall filled with voices each trying to talk over the other.
Switchfoot put it so eloquently when they sang “If we’re adding to the noise, turn off this song.” (You know you just hummed it in your head) and for Donovan, getting his team to say something without making a lot of noise is of the utmost priority.
“When you get to a huddle and five guys are talking at one time, no one is listening to anything,” Donovan laments.
“It comes from a good place, but what they need to be doing is lifting each other up instead of trying to explain what they need to be doing. I can handle telling them what they need to be doing. They need to worry about playing and doing their job effectively and doing it together.”
I.E.: Dragging your teammate through sprints so he’ll finish in time.
EXHIBIT A: DEVIN ROBINSON
As the days have come and gone, Donovan has been looking for more occurrences like this. Not many have come that are quite as blatant but there have been moments, coincidentally again with Devin Robinson.
During the Gators exhibition game against Barry University, Donovan was attempting to coach in this way, from the sidelines and reiterate an earlier conversation he had with Robinson to keep calm and play smart in his first college game. But Robinson kept taking shots anyways.
In 17 minutes, Robinson took 10 shots only sinking two.
With six seconds left, Robinson tried going for an ill-advised layup and ended up turning the ball over.
On the bench, Donovan was livid. Up by nine with not even a full shot clock left, this game was in the bag but Donovan ran the clock out yelling at Robinson. As he would later say, “How about just dribble the ball out and let’s end the game and we’ll go home? We’re up nine. Just like, where is your focus on what’s going on right now?”
As Donovan left the court he fumed over the freshman so blatantly disregarding his coaching and took the opportunity to let his frustrations be known in his post game press conference.
When a reporter prefaced a question about Robinson with “I don’t know if you’d say he played poorly,”-Donovan quickly interrupted with, “He did. It wasn’t even close. Really poor.”
Robinson heard the critique, or perhaps he just preemptively sensed it, but regardless he was waiting for Billy in the locker room later. He took the time to apologize and commit himself to getting better, as his coach puts it.
And he has. While his scoring hasn’t been lighting up the boards (3-8 versus William and Mary; 1-3 versus Miami), he has stepped up on defense and that is where Billy has asked for the most help.
Robinson had four rebounds and a block against William and Mary.
He then recorded a rebound, a block and two steals versus Miami.
Robinson though is merely a cog in this great wheel that is Billy Donovan’s championship system, but we do thank him for unwittingly serving as a metaphor for the greater thesis.
For this year, this team, Billy Donovan has a new row to hoe.
FINDING THE BALANCE
I wish I could take credit for so acutely attributing the perfect cliché to this season, but the truth is Donovan said it himself.
Downplaying his team’s prowess both before and during the season isn’t new.
Kassidy-So are you the number 7 team in the country?
Billy-No not even remotely close.
Applying some tough love to his players both privately and publicly isn’t new.
Never being satisfied with anything short of perfection isn’t new.
But this team is. Every year brings a new team, per se; but Donovan has been allowed to live in a fortress of some kind the last couple of years, and the four walls had names: Patric Young, Will Yeguete, Casey Prather and Scottie Wilbekin.
Even when these guys weren’t the seniors, they still contributed in ways that took so much pressure off of their coach.
Donovan has long praised the leadership that Young and Wilbekin brought to his team, and now, in a case of not really knowing what you had until it’s gone, that praise has multiplied ten-fold.
More than the leadership though, these four brought an almost telepathic connection, forged from time as roommates and road trips and Instagram video shoots.
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That cohesion is what Donovan and the coaching staff is looking for now.
“It doesn’t need to be one person,” Donovan explains.
“It needs to be those guys collectively saying OK, here’s what’s in front of us right now, let’s all get linked up and let’s do our best in this situation right now. And I think organically last year that just happened when Scottie [Wilbekin] got back. Those roles fell into place and I didn’t really need to inject myself as a coach. I have to inject myself a lot more right now in terms of, there’s too many guys talking. And there’s too many guys trying to give direction.”
IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING IMPORTANT TO SAY…
While Donovan continues to play air traffic controller, Jon Horford has to learn how to take that necessary step back.
Horford, a transfer from the University of Michigan, already has three+ years of experience under his belt including runs deep into March Madness, most notably an appearance in the 2013 national championship game; a run that included knocking off a certain Florida Gators team in the Elite Eight. And it doesn’t hurt that he has a name that carries weight in the Florida basketball program. His older brother is former Gator great and current Atlanta Hawk forward Al Horford.
“Coach is big right now on allowing the coaches to coach,” Horford says.
“If we see something that’s glaring, yeah, point it out. But mostly just get in there, play and allow them to direct.”
But the rookie veteran (that makes perfect sense if you think about it) has figured out other ways to say what needs to be said and it’s greatly reminiscent of Eli Carter’s moment with Devin Robinson.
“A lot of that comes through action. What we do sets an example for younger players. If we’re not doing our jobs, that’s not a very good example for them. We have to make sure we’re doing what we know and it’s the right thing to do at all times.”
One guy that Donovan has been slyly vocal about wanting to step up is Michael Frazier II. Since Frazier is the only returning starter on this team, it would make the most sense. However, while measuring against the near unreachable ceiling of last years team, Donovan has realized that pushing Mike into that role can cause more harm than good right now.
“It’s right now where a guy like Michael Frazier takes on the responsibility where ‘I need to lead the team right now’ and all of a sudden things are not going well. He gets frustrated, he’s trying to tell this guy what to do, that guy what to do. All of a sudden he forgets to do his job right now. That can be overwhelming. When they look at the fact that we lost four seniors that kinda had a lot of experience, they look at it from the standpoint of what do I need to do to replace that stuff? We don’t need that right now. We really don’t. That happened last year organically. We need more of, like ‘I don’t want to let you down.’ And I think any time I’ve been around a really good team that’s always been the main staple of really good teams. It’s that there’s been an incredible connection and bond and a care and a love inside the team that they’re playing for one another.”
As this team grows and begins to ‘play for one another’, they’ll naturally improve in the areas they lack; most notably and currently on defense. A second half collapse versus Miami saw the Gators lose 69-67 effectively ending a 33 home game win streak. The two points that lost the game will keep Billy Donovan awake at night much more than 33 game streak being snapped will. Donovan has been adamant that this team has miles to go on defense and Monday night’s loss will perhaps become the best lesson he could give his team.
With a long season ahead of them though, this lesson will just be the first of many.
For Billy Donovan, he just hopes his team can shut up and listen.
After a couple of years with a break, he’s fine with being the vocal coach again. Now, he just needs his guys to be a team.
“I can handle telling them what they need to be doing,” Billy declares. “They need to worry about playing and doing their job effectively and doing it together.
Excellent article.
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