Get Closer: Gators Look to Tighten Bond in Exhibition
Thursday, November 6, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The drill Monday divided Florida's team into four groups of four and was an all-out, fast-breaking, transition-defense maelstrom that came with a price. The two teams with the fewest points at the end of the clock had to run. Not a lot. Just a sprint to the baseline and back in 10 seconds, albeit while physically spent.
Making the required time was mandatory.
One player did not make it.
“Everyone runs again,” Gators coach Billy Donovan wailed.
Guess what? Someone missed it again.
This time, Donovan ordered 16 seconds on the clock and the penalty sprint grew to halfcourt-and-back, plus the full-court and back.
Sophomore center Jon Egbunu and freshman forward Devin Robinson did not make it. Donovan shouted for a 30-second rest and a reset of the clock. Yes, they had to go again. All of them. Robinson, meanwhile, dropped to the floor in utter exhaustion. His coach, though, was undeterred.
“This is what I've been talking about!” Donovan screamed. “If you care about the guy running next to you, you'll make it.”
The brief rest period ticked away.
10 ... 9 ... 8 ... 7 ... 6 ...
That's when fourth-year junior guard Eli Carter, whose team had won, bounced over to Robinson, helped him up and set him on the baseline.
“C'mon, man,” Carter told the rookie. “You can do this."
With his left hand clinging to Robinson's jersey, Carter sprinted to halfcourt with his young teammate in tow, raced back to the baseline, then sped to the far end, reversed and dashed to the finish, thus willing Robinson across the line.
And in time.
“Nice job, Eli,” Donovan said.
Welcome to the dogged days of the Florida preseason, where the Gators' focus extends well beyond transition defense and pick-and-roll concepts. The future Hall-of-Fame coach considers team-building as critical as any in-game phase and only has to point to the bond forged among last year's bunch; a closeness that carried them through adversity (on and off the floor) and eventually to unfathomable heights.
The bulk of the players that made it work -- the winningest senior class it UF history -- are gone. The foundation for the 2014-15 squad led by junior shooting guard Michael Frazier, sophomore point guard Kasey Hill and junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith set off seven months ago on a new journey.
So consider Thursday night's exhibition game against Division II Barry at the O'Connell Center a preview of coming attractions; the first step in the so-called process Donovan often talks about. The process, of course, plays out with time; each day, each game, each practice, meeting or film session another furthers the cause.
UF officially opens the season Nov. 14 against William & Mary.
“It's just something that happens over the course of a season,” center Jon Horford, a fifth-year senior transfer from Michigan, said of the club's evolution. "It's not always going to be immediate, right away, at the beginning. Very, very rarely is it like that. That's a good thing, in a way. You don't want to peak too soon. We're not close, but I think we'll get there.”
Ask Donovan and he'll say the Gators are nowhere approaching being a tightly knit team; the kind that can count on one another. Donovan used Frazier as an example.
As the lone starter back from a team that rampaged through the SEC and won a school-record 30 in a row until falling to Connecticut in the Final Four, Frazier naturally feels some responsibility to be a leader. As such, he speaks up. Sometimes, Donovan said, Frazier would be better served focusing on himself rather than maybe forcefully trying to help guide his teammates.
"He actually pulled me aside a couple days ago and told me not worry about other guys at the expense of myself," Frazier said. "I'm a natural kind of leader, so Coach just said I need to be myself -- bring passion and energy -- and the guys will gravitate to what I do."
In other words, keep it real. That's what the Gators did last year during their perfect sweep through the Southeastern Conference and eventual 30-game winning streak. It's worth noting, though, that team has a mess this time a year ago, with a trio of early season suspensions and some injuries that significantly hampered the rotation.
The Gators fought through it and grew from it by learning to rely on and trust one another.
“That happened last year organically,” Donovan said. “They need to show the guy standing next to them, 'Listen, I'm committed to this position, I'm committed to you.' Those relationships become really, really important when they're on the floor playing together. That's what we need more of. Like, 'I don't want to let you down.' Any time I've been around a really good team, that's always been a staple.”
Before practice Tuesday, the Gators' film session included an interview, of all things, with a UF football player.
Donovan was struck by senior center Max Garcia's emotional words about teammate Michael McNeely, the former walk-on and Publix bag boy whose touchdown run on a fake field-goal kicked started UF's upset Saturday of Georgia. Garcia met with the press earlier this week and was visibly choked up when asked about McNeely. Garcia said if more McNeelys were in the locker room the Gators would be playing for a national championship.
That's the kind of love Donovan wants to see in his locker room, on the bench and between the lines.
"You can't force it, but you can encourage it," Frazier said.
That's happening every day.
“It's going to be part of our growth, our maturing as a team,” Donovan said. “I've got to step in a little bit more as a coach and be able to kind of facilitate some of those things.”
He'll be looking for early signs of carryover Thursday night.
