Although it has been just a week since the seventh-ranked Florida Gators got to face an opponent rather than themselves, head coach Billy Donovan has already learned much about his team.
Before playing the exhibition game against Barry University, Donovan would always say that during scrimmages or timeouts not a player would remain silent and listen. Everyone wanted to be a leader in some way.
Now, everyone understands their role a lot better and it has helped the team improve since day one.
“Yeah, I think bringing it to their awareness and them understanding I think it’s been good in terms of just trying to lift each other up and trying to get more connected as a group,” Donovan said. “I think that that’s been good where it’s not like we need anybody to be a particular leader nobody in the huddle’s in charge it’s just a matter of them getting engaged and focused on the next thing and I think that they’re aware of it.”
As the coach, Donovan said that’s the most important thing. If you can make your players aware of it and help them work through it. The team has shown progress since their first official exhibition game but with the season around the corner, Donovan still wants to see a continued progression.
But Florida’s coaching staff got to witness how their players performed while under pressure and came to realize how they responded to play around new teammates.
Chris Chiozza, Jon Horford and Devin Robinson all got their first games in as a Gator and each of them responded differently.
Donovan thought Chiozza responded and played really well; especially coming down the stretch and Horford continues to get better and can provide an outside presence to stretch the floor. Despite Robinson having a horrid first game, he took the initiative to improve post-Barry to be ready for the season-opener.
“The one thing I would say about Devin and Chiozza, now that we’ve been going on for just about a month now, they are able to work-ethic wise handle the threshold of a college practice and I think that’s been very, very good,” Donovan said. “They can cardiovascularly handle it. They can physically handle it. I think where a lot of freshmen’s growth get stunted is when they are just overwhelmed and I’m sure they will hit a wall and become fatigued and mentally drained, but they’re able to sustain intensity at a level we need them to every day in practice.”
Since allowing 70 points to a Division II school, which cannot happen against Florida’s regular season opponents, the Gators ability to establish a steady defense sill continues to be a factor.
Donovan noted throughout the team’s three scrimmages, an average of 82 points were allowed and they’re giving up 48 percent from the three-point line and if that continues it’s hard for the tenured coach to say they are the No. 7 team in the country.
In perspective, last year’s team only allowed 59 points per game in similar exhibitions.
Regardless of the reality that lies behind those numbers, guard Michael Frazier II, expressed how the team took that note and performance against Barry to practice on bringing that average down.
“I think we’ve made major strides on the defensive end of the floor, which was one of our major concerns, as well as our discipline coming into the season,” Frazier said. “So I think we continue to get better at that every day in practice and the goal is to keep building on that and getting better every day.”