Gators seek to get better before heading to Auburn
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Men's Tennis, Scott Carter
By the time the Gators take the court on Thursday at Auburn, they will have had five days between games.
But that's not a bad thing according to Coach Billy Donovan, especially with the trip to Auburn starting a stretch of three games in six days.
“We'll have three games kind of bunched up,'' Donovan said Monday on the weekly SEC media teleconference. “For our team, it's good we do get some practice time and we can work on some things.''
The game at Auburn comes after Saturday's home loss to South Carolina. The loss to the Gamecocks followed a big win at Tennessee.
Donovan says to expect that kind of season in the SEC from top to bottom.
“The West I believe is better than it was a year ago,'' he said. “Last year, the league certainly had Kentucky that clearly was head and shoulders above everybody else. But there is an enormous amount of parity [this year]. On any given night anything can happen.
“There is going to be a lot of ups and downs, a lot of peaks and valleys.''
POSITIVE PATRIC: Freshman Patric Young scored a career-high 12 points and grabbed five rebounds in Saturday's 72-69 loss to South Carolina. Young played only 19 minutes, but when he was in the game, the Gators responded.
Showing he is starting to gain more confidence, Young hit a jumper that cut South Carolina's lead to 47-39 early in the second half, and then tried to get the crowd more involved through his exuberant arm pumping. South Carolina coach Darrin Horn called a 30-second timeout immediately after the basket, sensing the change in momentum.
“I've been really, really proud of Patric,'' Donovan said afterward. “He's really grown and matured in a lot of ways ever since the [holiday] break. He's gotten better. If he just comes with that energy and that fire and that passion and that aggressiveness, it really helps our team.''
Senior forward Chandler Parsons agreed, saying the team feeds off Young's physical play and raw emotion.
“He played huge,'' Parsons said. “He was just playing with such energy, blocking shots, making big step ups. That's how we need him to play every game because he can really provide a lot of help and depth.''
MURPHY EXPECTED BACK: Sophomore forward Erik Murphy was available to play on Saturday against South Carolina, but Donovan chose to keep him idle.
Murphy has missed four consecutive games following a foot injury.
Donovan said to expect Murphy, who is 6.3 points and 3.2 rebounds, back on the floor on Thursday at Auburn.
“I just thought with the way the game was going [Saturday], I didn't want to put him in that situation, because he didn't practice really two solid days,'' Donovan said. “This is a better week for him going into the Auburn game because we have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday where he can really get back.
“It's probably better for his health that he didn't play.''
ODDS AND ENDS: The Gators are now 11th in the league in free-throw shooting (65.1 percent), but lead the conference in field goal percentage (46.9) … Parsons (32.3 minutes per game), Kenny Boynton (31.6) and Erving Walker (31.2) all rank in the top 10 in the SEC in minutes played … Walker is third in the league in 3-point shooting, hitting 39 of 87 (44.8 percent), trailing only Kentucky's Doron Lamb (35 of 70/50 percent) and Mississippi State's Riley Benock (34 of 75/45.3 percent).
