Lesson Learned? Gators Return Home Looking For Focused Effort Against Mississippi Valley State
Sunday, December 18, 2011 | Men's Basketball
By Chris Harry
GatorZone Contributing Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The Florida Gators exited exam week by putting together their best all-around effort of the young season Saturday, leading No. 22 Texas A&M wire-to-wire on the way to an 84-64 victory in the Orange Bowl Classic.
The eight days off -- including five last week for finals -- appeared to help the Gators, who jumped on A&M with great defense and offensively executed with precision in a 50-point first half.
UF certainly showed it could embrace a blip in the game schedule, as Christmas break officially tipped off Friday. Now, the 13th-ranked Gators (8-2) get to see how they handle the quick holiday turnaround, with Mississippi Valley State (1-8) rolling in for Monday night's game at the O'Connell Center.
After all, 'tis the season for distractions.
“For anybody that's coaching, this is a hard time of year,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said after Saturday's win at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla. “Campus starts to disperse. Guys are in finals. There's so much going on that they need to take care of.”
Donovan and his staff want the Delta Devils to be somewhere above “Shopping at the Oaks Mall” on the holiday checklist -- especially with a big showdown against rival Florida State set for Thursday night at the O'Dome.
With the players facing staggered exam schedules, Florida used last week to focus a great deal on individual instruction, shooting (especially free throws) and getting the players in the weight room. There was some attention paid to honing the team's offensive sets, but the time away gave the Gators a chance to catch their collective breath between their academics and basketball.
The next couple weeks, though, it'll be bouncing balls over books.
“This time of year, it's not the physical part, because these guys are in good shape. It's the mental part,” Donovan said. “With all the pressure and stress they have with school, games, people leaving, holidays, all those things they have to manage. We just wanted to utilize the first part [of the break] to try and get better and improve, and then, at the end of the week, to get prepared for how we wanted to play against A&M.”
And beyond.
Making his case for the need to focus won't be very difficult. Donovan just might cue tape from this time last year, when the Gators were coming off a huge win against No. 6 Kansas State in the very same Orange Bowl Classic. Two days later, unsung Jacksonville rolled into Gainesville while the Gators were feeling pretty good about themselves. During that UF-JU game, Florida announced guard Kenny Boynton, MVP of the Orange Bowl game, had been named Southeastern Conference Player of the Week.
Minutes later, Jacksonville was taking Florida into overtime and beating the Gators 71-68 on their home floor.
Worth noting: Boynton was MVP in the OBC again Saturday.
Boynton shook his head at the thought.
“No, we learned our lesson,” Boynton said, pointing out that freshman swingman Bradley Beal and freshman reserve forward Walter Pitchford are the only current UF players who didn't experience the sting of that holiday lull last year. “All the rest of us know the focus we need to have over the next couple days.”
It's not so much about the opponent -- the Delta Devils have just that one win against a very ambitious schedule -- as it is about the Gators being in the right frame of mind against a lesser foe barely 48 hours after dismantling a pretty good one.
This time, he nodded his head.
“I think we're going to have a great game,” Boynton said.
GATORS GAMEBOX
Mississippi Valley State at No. 13 Florida
Tip-off: 7 p.m. (O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.)
Records: Mississippi Valley State 1-8, Florida 8-2
TV: Fox Sports Florida (w/Larry Vettel and Bill Koss)
Radio: Gator Radio Network (w/Mick Hubert and Mark Wise) -- Click here for affiliates) / Sirius 220/XM 199
Game notes: Florida notes; Mississippi Valley State notes
Need to know: UF and MVSU, out of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, will play for the first time. The Gators are 5-0 all-time against the SWAC, including a 99-59 defeat of Jackson State in the 2011-12 season opener. ... UF has played four of its last five games outside Gainesville, but now will play four of the next five games at the O'Dome before starting Southeastern Conference play Jan. 7. ... The Gators have four players averaging in double-figures, led by junior G Kenny Boynton (19 ppg) and freshman G/F Bradley Beal (15.2 ppg), but UF also has two more players averaging at least 9 ppg. All told, the Gators average 86.5 points per game on 47.7-percent shooting. ... UF went into Saturday's game against Texas A&M averaging 59.6 percent from the free-throw line as a team, but converted on 23 of 30 (76.7 percent) in a performance Coach Billy Donovan said was far more reflective of what his team can do. ... Mississippi Valley State is coached by Sean Woods, who gained fame as one of Kentucky's “Unforgettables,” a group of four seniors (that also included UF assistant coach John Pelphrey) that weathered wicked NCAA sanctions at UK and came a Christian Laettner miracle shot from reaching the 1992 Final Four in what turned out to be the final game of their Wildcats careers. Billy Donovan was an assistant coach on that team. ... Give Woods credit. HIs schedule already has included games -- all losses -- against Notre Dame, then-No. 1 North Carolina, South Carolina (a 1-point defeat), Arkansas and Mississippi. After facing the Gators, the Delta Devils will face No. 15 Wisconsin on Friday. ... MSVS's best player is 6-8, 245-pound Paul Crosby, who is averaging 14.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. UF should be able to score a bunch of points. On defense, the Delta Devils are allowing 49.9 percent from the floor and 45.2 percent from the 3-point line.
