GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- On Thursday, in reviewing their nice road win at South Carolina the night before, Florida coach Billy Donovan stood before his team and praised the four players he felt had the biggest hand in the outcome.
Jon Egbunu. Lexx Edwards. Brandone Francis. Jake Kurtz
Come again?
That foursome make up the core of the UF scout team, a unit that -- believe it or not -- indeed includes Kurtz, the senior walk-on who at 22.5 minutes per game happens to double as one of UF's main rotation players. Kurtz is so in tune with what the Gators do on offense that he did not take one rep with the regulars during the South Carolina morning shoot-around and, instead, ran the Gamecocks stuff to help prepare the rest of the front-liners.
“That's how much we trust him,” UF assistant coach John Pelphrey said.
Before the Gators even left for Columbia, S.C., though, they were pounded on by a scout team that was told it had to mimic the drive-and-crash physicality of the Gamecocks. The scouts not only did as they were told in the practices, they did it so well they won their fair share of possessions and even got the regulars a little out of sorts, a little feisty, in the process.
Francis, particularly, got under a few skins with his hard, head-down dives into the lane. Some forearms and shoves ensued, which was exactly what needed to happen.
“Get used to it!” Donovan yelled. “That's how it's going to be.”
And that's how it was. The Gators, though, were ready for it in out-Gamecocking their opponent with a hardnosed effort that fueled a 72-68 road win to open the Southeastern Conference season.
Florida (8-6, 1-0) returned and went back to work with their attention focused on Saturday night's SEC home opener against Mississippi State (7-7, 0-1) at the O'Connell Center. The Gators actually added a player to their scout squad Thursday in Stanford midseason transfer Schyuler Rimmer, a 6-foot-10, 255-pound forward. For his first day of practice, Rimmer was briefed about the responsibility and accountability of the Florida program under Donovan -- the “culture,” a term that's being tossed around a lot with this team -- and how folded into the equation are scout-team players embracing their roles.
So on one of the first scrimmage possessions of practice, Rimmer stepped out to set a screen on freshman Devin Robinson and extended a forearm and shoulder into the 185-pound forward.
Robinson had one of those “What-the-Blank?” looks on his face, but played on.
“I wasn't expecting that,” Robinson said. “All those guys kind of have a chip on their shoulders, but that's a good thing. They're helping us and we appreciate us. They push us and make us push back.”
On a team in which growing pains were inevitable, this is part of “the process” (another popular go-to Donovan term), all of which goes into “the culture.”
The dictionary definition of “culture” is this:
“The attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group.”
In this case, a basketball team.
“When I look at the best teams I've coached, the first thing that comes to mind is an enormous amount of love and care and acceptance for each other,” Donovan said. “Another thing that's big for me is being unselfish.”
The greatest players in the world, he continued, are the ones who make everyone around them better. Last year's remarkable team was Donovan's culture at its finest; even in times of adversity. They grew closer and played through it all.
This 2014-15 squad, in losing six games before the conference schedule even began, Donovan saw some slippage in his culture. That's why he suspended a couple players, senior center Jon Horford and walk-on guard Zach Hodskins, earlier this week and left them at home for the South Carolina trip, citing conduct detrimental to the team. That's why senior guard Michael Frazier's streak of 46 straight starts was snapped against the Gamecocks, after seeing too much head-hanging when his shot wasn't falling.
Horford, after meeting with the coaches, was reinstated to the team Friday, though he will not play against the Bulldogs. Hodskins remains suspended, but could be back next week. Frazier, who played 27 minutes off the bench against USC, will likely return to the starting lineup once he recovers from an illness that kept him from practicing both Thursday and Friday. He'll likely be well enough to play against the Bulldogs, but not start.
Of course, all statuses are fluid, based on the buy-in factor. What took place in the days preceding the South Carolina are a great example.
What took place during -- a big victory -- was the perfect example of why Donovan does it his way.
“He's not changing for anybody,” said Robinson, who as a rookie on the ground floor of the program is a poster boy for exactly who the culture is intended to impact most (Translation: If it can happen to Frazier, it can happen to anybody). “Coach D knows what it takes to win. If someone is not on the boat, it's leaving. It's sailing away. He wants everybody on same the boat, on his time and here to work. That's it.”
That means everybody.
Those four scout teams guys made that win possible -- and three of them didn't even make the trip.
“Scout team is very much culture, absolutely,” Pelphrey said.
For the first six weeks of the season, the Gators broke their huddle with the chant, “One-Two-Three -- Belief!”
Last week, Donovan told his players he was tired of that word. He didn't think they believed. He wanted another one.
Here's how they break huddle now.
“One-Two-Three -- Culture!”
“I really believe culture wins ... [and] when the culture and the foundation of it gets cracked, I will not sell out just for winning,” Donovan said. “I'm not doing that because inevitably you sell out for a win, it's going to come back and get you. You got to stand for what your program stands for.”
