The Specter of Hector: Gators Vow to Unleash New Defensive Identity
Thursday, November 13, 2014 | Women's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Their sixth man is really a sixth woman. She has nothing to do with the fans in the stands. You will never see her, either.
The object is for the opponent to feel her.
To fear her, actually.
“She's crazy,” redshirt junior guard Carlie Needles said. “You dread her and don't want to be around her.”
“Tall, with long hands, and she's constantly moving side to side,” redshirt junior center Vikta Dimaite said. “She's loud and very confident.”
What else?
“She's ripped, really fit and muscular. Big and imposing -- and with wild hair,” Gators coach Amanda Butler said, realizing instantly what was coming next. “Yes, like mine, maybe circa 1991, but with wild eyes and a relentlessness that makes her a force to be reckoned with.”
If this sounds like the most coveted player in NCAA women's basketball, well, that's a good thing. No, the Gators don't have this beast in the flesh to lean on heading into the 2014-15 season, but, since convening for preseason conditioning, they've spent plenty of time visualizing an identity for a Florida defense that must be better than a year ago for the team to make good on its slogan to “elevate” everything about the program.
Meet Hector.
Yes, Hector is a she.
Better yet, a “she devil.” At least that's picture the UF players have painted for themselves and the coaching staff when describing the fury they hope to unleash on their foes, starting with Friday afternoon's season opener against Jacksonville at the O'Connell Center.
Last season, the Gators ranked next-to-last in the Southeastern Conference in points allowed in league play. At 70.9 per game, only Ole Miss, which went 2-14 and finished dead last in the SEC standings, was worse. UF, meanwhile, finished 20-13, including 8-8 in the league, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament, where the 13th-seeded Gators upset fourth-seeded Dayton in opening-round play,before falling to host Penn State in the second round.
Given that UF lost four SEC games (including a 75-70 setback to Kentucky in the conference tournament) by six points or less, a smidgeon more of defensive intensity and results may have made a difference in postseason seeding.
This season, that's the goal.
“[Coach] Butler wants us back to the basics and being known for our defense,” Needles said. “We want to be tough and aggressive and well-conditioned more than anyone else.”
Enter the invisible teammate. Hector is not a match-up zone or 1-2-2. She's not a trap or a press.
She's more like an attitude.
“Hector's identity is still being shaped and the end product of actually seeing her is going to be a journey,” said Butler, who in her eighth season leading her alma mater and seeking a third NCAA berth in the last four seasons, with the goal of sticking around another week or so. “I like where it started and the ownership our players took in creating a defensive identity for themselves and what they wanted it to feel like and sound like -- and to even attach an image to what Hector should look like.”
The name “Hector” does not to derive from the word “hex,” as in a curse or a spell (though, that's not bad for the purpose), but rather from the prefix “hexa,” as in the Greek word for six.
As in a sixth defender, who kicks in that extra jolt of energy and passion.
Example: “Taking a really vicious charge, that's something Hector would do,” Butler said. “She'd take the hit, bounce up and chest bump everyone near her and run down the court screaming. That's my image. But, what Hector is supposed to look like to me doesn't matter. It's what [the players] think she's going to look like that's important.”
Fiesty, fiery and furious.
“That's what she's supposed to feel like; always attacking hard and being this crazy character,” sophomore forward Ronni Williams. “We want her to be aggressive and all over the place, but also smart with how she brings it.”
Before the team convened for the start of preseason practice, the Gators staged a brutal three-day defensive camp -- called “Camp Hector,” of course, and led by strength and conditioning coordintator Tyler Stuart -- that began at 5 a.m., and focused exclusively on fitness and defensive fundamentals.
Five weeks later, there's still defensive work to be done, but, as Butler said, Hector will be a work in progress.
“We've seen her show up in our scrimmages and practices, but sometimes she's actually been overly aggressive and taken us out of position,” Williams said. “Hector is supposed to be crazy, but she also has to be under control.”
The connotation of what she's supposed to be is virtually unanimous. The season is here. Time for Hector's denotation to be realized.
Give 'em hell heck, Gators.
Better yet, give 'em Hector.
