Beal, Gators Look to Regroup at Home Against Georgia
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
By Chris Harry
GatorZone Contributing Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Bradley Beal was the 2011 Gatorade National Player of the Year as a senior at St. Louis (Mo.) Chaminade Prep. He averaged 32.5 points his final season, including a career-high 52 in a game.
But there also was a night when Beal left the floor with seven points.
“That was frustrating,” he said Monday, nodding his head. “This is kind of the same thing ... but not really.”
Probably not even close.
Beal's phenomenal skills have flashed during the first half of his freshman season at Florida, but eye-opening splashes have given way to some wincing lapses, especially in UF's two defeats of late, most recently Saturday's 67-56 loss at Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams. Beal was not the only problem -- not by a long shot -- but his 4-for-12 shooting from the floor, along 1-for-5 from 3-point range and team-high five turnovers added to what has become a disturbing trend of poor play on the road for the both the standout rookie and his team.
They'll have to wait for the weekend to face those dreaded road demons again, but in the interim Beal and the 19th-ranked Gators (12-4) will try to hop back on the winning horse Tuesday night against Georgia (9-6, 0-1) in their first conference game at the O'Connell Center this season.
Look for both Beal and Florida to play well. The Gators are 8-0 at home this season and Beal is shooting 45 percent, including 35 from the arc, and averaging 2.3 assists and less than two turnovers in those eight games, plus four others played inside the friendly of the Florida state lines.
Outside those lines, though, Beal is shooting 32.6 percent overall, 21.7 from 3-point range and has just four assists and 22 turnovers.
“This is new to me,” Beal said.
Welcome to the Big Time.
Back in Missouri, Beal could weather a half, even a game, when his shot wasn't falling, but now there's a pattern developing relative to his performance on the road and it's up to Beal, his teammates and coaches to help him through it. The best way is to get on the court again, regardless of the venue.
Though the O'Dome is a good place to start.
“He just has to try and not to let it affect him mentally, and just keep playing,” junior forward Erik Murphy said. “It'll come. It's going to happen. He has to just keep fighting and break through it.”
Billy Donovan has spent a lot of time talking with and supporting Beal. The Gators coach knows how good his 6-foot-3, 207-pound guard/forward can be -- and what a clear, focused and at-his-best Beal will mean in the SEC season -- but he also knows there's a big chunk of this funk that Beal has to break through on his own.
And like Beal said, this is uncharted territory for the former prep superstar.
“When was the last time he has gone through any level of adversity on the floor?” Donovan asked. “In high school, if he had a bad shooting game or his team lost, he could always probably come back and quickly solve it by just trying harder. But now he's in a place where trying harder is not solving it, so he has to realize that with the speed and pace of the game, the physicality of the game, people are not going to allow him to play with the ball and they're going to make him uncomfortable when he's out there.”
The turnovers have especially been a problem; more than four times as many giveaways as assists on the road.
Yet, the bulk of those turnovers haven't come on wild and crazy passes that go to the other team or sail out of bounds, but rather losing the ball on drives to the basket or momentary lapses of concentration with two defenders in his face.
“Some guys have really loud turnovers,” Donovan said. “His don't necessarily stick out, but they're there.”
Beal, who won't turn 19 until June, admitted that he sometimes gets down on himself, but also knows a lot of what he's going through has to do with learning to play college basketball at the highest level.
“It's not so much the speed of the game as physical [things] for me now,” he said. “Like being lower to the ground and more explosive.”
Those are fundamental elements for a shooter, slasher and scorer the likes of Beal. Getting away from those basics would not have hurt him as a 12th-grader.
The key to getting through these struggles now, Donovan said, is using the times when the shot isn't falling by fighting for rebounds, defending and doing other things to help his team win. The rest should take care of itself.
“It's not a slump or anything like that. You know what? It's college basketball. It's part of the deal. At this level it's not easy,” Donovan said. “You've got to accept and embrace the challenge and confrontation that comes with adversity, and it's going to be difficult.”
Beal is having to learn on the fly while averaging nearly 34 minutes per game. Call it the price of immense talent.
“Sometimes I kind of question myself,” he said. “I watch film and it's like, 'Dang! Why did I do that?' But it's a learning experience.”
The Gators will stick by him through this education because the players and coaches know the upside at the end of this rough road that will be worth waiting for.
Some know from experience.
“I tell him to keep his head on,” said junior guard Kenny Boynton, the former prep hotshot and McDonald's All-American who went through similar rookie circumstances and now ranks second in the SEC in scoring. “There's going to come a game -- and I can't tell you which one -- that Brad is going to shoot it well. ... In high school, you shoot so well and average so many points, then you get here and it's just different.”
GATORS GAMEBOX
Georgia at No. 19 Florida
Tip-off: Saturday, 7 p.m. (O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.)
Records: Florida 12-4, 0-1; Georgia 9-6, 0-1
TV: ESPN (w/Brad Nessler, Jimmy Dykes and Shannon Spake)
Radio: Gator Radio Network (w/Mick Hubert and Mark Wise) -- Click here for affiliates) / Sirius 220/XM 199
Game notes: Florida notes; Georgia notes
Need to know: The Gators and Bulldogs meet for 212th time in a series that dates to the 1924-25 season. Florida leads the series 105-96, including wins in 14 of the last 16 and a sweep of the series last season. ... UF has lost two of its last four games to drop out of the Associated Press Top 10 and down to No. 19 (both polls) ... Both teams are coming off losses in their Southeastern Conference openers Saturday. The Gators were beaten 67-56 at Tennessee and the Bulldogs were beaten 74-59 at Alabama. ... After a season-low point total against the Volunteers, UF no longer leads the nation in scoring, but does top the SEC at 83.6 points per game and still ranks first in the league in 3-point shooting at 40.9 percent. ... All five Florida starters average in double-figures, led by junior G Kenny Boynton (19.1 ppg), freshman G Bradley Beal (14.1 ppg, 5.9 rpg) and senior PG Erving Walker (13.4 ppg, 5.1 apg). ... Georgia had won five straight games before the 15-point loss at Bama. ... The Bulldogs are led by freshman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (14.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg), a McDonald's All-America alongside UF's Beal last spring, and senior PG Gerald Robinson (13.6 ppg, 3.3 apg). ... Georgia ranks last in the SEC in scoring at 62.9 points per game -- which ranks 279th in the nation -- but it's worth noting that Tennessee ranked last in the SEC in field-goal percentage defense and held the Gators to their worst offensive production of the season.
