Nice Game, Mike ... Now What?
Tuesday, January 27, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Michael Frazier had not had a game like that one in a long, long time. His nuclear night of 37 points at South Carolina last season still stands as his gold standard, but after pouring in 27 and burying six of eight 3-point shots Saturday night at Ole Miss, it would be easy to think Florida's junior shooting guard is coming out of the funk that dogged him during the first half of the season.
Except for one thing: His team still lost.
“At the end of the day, I've got to look at myself in the mirror and see what other things I can do better,” Frazier said Monday of the Gators' biting 72-71 defeat at Oxford, the squad's third straight. “Even though the ball did go in the basket, there were other things that I could have done to impact the game to help us win.”
Those were exactly the kind of comments UF coach Billy Donovan and his coaching staff want to hear from their sharp-shooter. To be frank, they've heard similar ones before.
Now they sense Frazier is starting to believe them.
“I think Michael's mindset is changing for the better,” Donovan said. “I don't think he came into the season with the right mindset [and we're] trying to help him change because he has obviously struggled here and there.”
The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Frazier has been neither fully locked nor loaded this season, but maybe what he needed was a breakout performance to get his mind (and mindset) right. What better way to demonstrate he's moved to a better place mentally than to follow that game up with another when the reeling Gators (10-9, 3-3) face Alabama (13-6, 3-3) Tuesday night at Coleman Coliseum?
And, no, this isn't about having another 900-degree night from long range. It's much, much more than that.
Frazier was definitely dialed in from distance -- he also went 7-for-7 from the free throw line, including a pair of clutch ones for a short-lived, one-point lead with 9.8 seconds left -- but he also defended and communicated in the halfcourt, boxed out and rebounded, and constantly stayed on the move without the ball.
Donovan wants to know if that Frazier will show up when he's 2-for-9, instead of 6-for-8. Because even a cold-shooting Frazier -- one that just takes shots when there -- helps his team because no coach in the Southeastern Conference is going leave him open or think that just because Frazier isn't making shots can't heat up and nail three or four in a row.
“It's always easier when your first shot goes down,” Donovan said. “Michael's challenge is going to be when he misses some; can he still stay engaged in the game? I was happy with his approach [Saturday]. His approach to me has gotten better over the last week or so. That's been pleasing. I'm not so sure his approach was that when the season started.”
Guard Michael Frazier was both hot and fired up during the Gators' game at Ole Miss.
It actually goes back to the offseason when Donovan warned his players -- especially the ones who played key parts in the 2013-14 unbeaten SEC run to the Final Four -- their roles would be drastically different than a year ago.
“He told us,” Frazier said. “We are where we are right now because we chose not to listen to him.”
As the lone returning starter from that team, Frazier anointed himself the leader of the team, but with that came responsibilities Donovan did not believe Frazier was ready for. Or frankly, would for.
The proof was in the roller-coaster first half of the season, including a five-game stretch when Frazier went 13-for-37 from the arc. One of those games was a sizzling 6-for-11 effort in a blowout of Jacksonville, meaning the other four games he was 7-for-26.
That's 27 percent.
In that stretch, Donovan saw too much head-hanging and too much self-absorbed body language.
“It all comes from a good place and with good intentions,” said Donovan, who benched Frazier from the starting lineup for the first four SEC games. “He was thinking he had to take this next step now and that was all on him. It's not on him. It's about being a good teammate and getting guys to work hard. It's about putting himself in position so guys can find him, moving and shooting with confidence. And it's about when you miss shots, do you have enough courage to come back and take the next one? And the one after that?”
The last time out was not applicable. Frazier swished his first two shots of the game, prompting a quick timeout from Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy. As the Gators came off the floor, Frazier skied for chest bumps with his teammates. He was fired up.
“How 'bout getting fired up and showing that kind of excitement and determination after a making a turnover?” Donovan said. “That's what I'm talking about.”
Enter the Crimson Tide, a team very much like the Gators, in the middle of the SEC pack. They represent Frazier's next opportunity for growth; next opportunity to show his coach that not only his game demeanor and disposition are trending upward.
A chance for Frazier to do all the things a good teammate does.
“I just want to win,” he said. “That's my main focus right now.”
