Searching for their identity
Thursday, November 27, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Volleyball, Chris Harry
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- The most obvious takeaway from Florida's 66-65 overtime loss to Georgetown was the dramatic -- and crushing -- manner the Gators lost their opening-round game in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Hoyas guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera swished a 21-foot jumper from the top of the key with 3.5 seconds left for the win, just eight seconds after UF point guard Kasey Hill's driving, old-fashion 3-point play had given Florida a one-point lead.
Ouch.
But as far as Billy Donovan was concerned, the Gators (2-2) did not lose the game on that play.
“I look at it differently,” he said. “There probably were combined, for both teams, more than 100 plays in the game. We probably played our 100 plays, in all honesty, about 50 of them -- maybe less -- at a level I'd like to see us play. You can focus on the last play, but I wouldn't have felt great even if Rivera's shot was off. It would have felt good [to win], but sometimes winning is delusional because sometimes it does away with what is actually real.”
So Thursday morning, Dononvan and his staff met with the team and had some real talk about playing the right way and about playing to identities -- both individually and team-wise. Tonight's loser-bracket game against Alabama-Birmingham (2-3), which was smashed by No. 3 Wisconsin 72-43 in its first-round game, would be an ideal place to start.
As a sample case, take junior shooting guard Michael Frazier (pictured above).
Last year, Frazier was a second-team All-Southeastern Conference selection and one of the most deadly 3-point shooters in the country. Now in a new role, Frazier has tried to take on more leadership, improve his dribble-drive skills and become a more well-rounded player. All that is admirable, all that is good.
Except, what he's doing now is not working for this team.
Frazier leads the Gators in scoring at 15 points per game, but he's shooting 43.5 percent from the floor (down from 46.1 last season) and has made just seven of his 22 shots from the arc for 31.8 percent (down from 44.7).
Granted, the Gators' lack of low-post presence -- Patric Young was on another plame compared to what Jon Horford and Chris Walker are providing the team -- has allowed defenses to extend and pay more attention to Frazier, but a little more of staying in last year's character (freeing his mind, focusing on that deadly jumper we'd come to know the last two seasons) may do Frazier and the Gators a lot good.
Same goes for Kasey Hill, the sophomore point guard who has taken over the role as playmaker, but may too often be forcing things versus finishing plays and locking in on running the offense.
As Donovan likes to say, what happens between the lines ultimately defines you.
So what are these Gators going to be?
“That one is over. We're not getting it back, we're moving on from it,” Donovan told his team before Thursday afternoon's shoot-around at the Imperial Grand Ballroom, as Georgetown and Wisconsin were preparing to play in a winner's bracket game at the arena across the hall. “It's not about what we were [Wednesday]. It's about what we are today. And you guys should be excited as hell to be playing tonight.”
