Say 'Cheese!' With Frazier out, more falls on the plate of freshman Chris Chiozza
Thursday, February 12, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Whether you're watching from the O'Connell Center seats or on television, whether you're an expert in college basketball or just think you're one, chances are you've spent some time of late debating what's wrong with the Florida Gators.
Safe to say Billy Donovan has kicked the notion around some, also.
The 2014-15 Gators (12-11, 5-5) have dropped five of their previous seven games heading into Thursday night's Southeastern Conference date against Ole Miss (16-7, 7-3) at the O'Dome. The lack of low-post production, consistency at point guard and sometimes grisly free-throw shooting have undermined the team all season.
In the loss Saturday night to Kentucky, both guard Kasey Hill and center Jon Horford missed big free throws down the stretch. Sophomore center Chris Walker went scoreless for the third straight game in 11 foul-plagued minutes. Junior guard Eli Carter was 1-for-8 from the 3-point arc. Freshman Devin Robinson had a stretch of three turnovers in a 2 1/2-minute sequence of the second half when the Wildcats made their run to take command of the game.
Each of those aforementioned players have had ups and downs this season -- much like the team itself -- but one Gator has been fairly steady and possibly exceeded expectations, given his initial baseline.
Maybe that's because Chris Chiozza was a fairly unknown, unheralded freshman when he arrived last summer and has been allowed to develop like, well, a freshman.
“I feel like this has been a great experience,” said Chiozza, who's averaging four points and two assists per game. “It's been a tough season so far. I didn't plan on it being easy, but not this hard. I've learned a lot since I've been here.”
More, the 6-foot, 160-pounder added, in his first week with Donovan than he learned in four years of high school basketball back in Memphis, Tenn.
At White Station High, Chiozza averaged 15 points and eight assists on a team that went 30-3 and also featured two more Division-I players (Leron Black, now at Illinois, and DaVell Roby, now at St. Louis). The Gators saw a floor general who was electric in transition and with excellent with his vision. His skill-set projected nicely into Donovan's pick-and-roll system.
Freshman guard Chris Chiozza's role figures to increase the next few games with leading scorer Michael Frazier II sidelined with an ankle sprain.
Against Kentucky, Chiozza came off the bench to score six points, grab four rebounds, dish one assist and come up with three steals in 26 minutes.
“I thought Chiozza gave us some really good minutes,” Donovan said.
He showed fearlessness in driving into the teeth of a Kentucky frontcourt, looking to spray the ball to teammates for shots. In the open floor, he attacked the basket and scored in transition, several times against much bigger defenders. Size is not an issue when you have a big heart.
There's still plenty about the game, and its nuances, Chiozza can figure out, especially on the defensive end when playing off the ball. That's normal for a rookie.
With the ball in his hands, though, that's a different story.
“The game is slowing down a lot since I first got here, so it's just easier to read defenses,” Chiozza said. “It's just being smart and knowing where the ball should go, seeing mismatches and exploiting them.”
Though a point guard by title, Chiozza has logged a bunch of minutes alongside Hill to give Donovan a different backcourt look that sacrifices size and scoring for speed and tempo.
In a season where wins have been tough to come by, Chiozza's progression has been something of a tradeoff. Both he and the Gators will be better for it down the line.
For now, he's a key cog in the Florida basketball "process."
“I thought coming in he would be a 15- to 17-minute guy, play some backup point and give us some spurt off the bench,” UF assistant coach Rashon Burno said of Chiozza, who has morphed into a 22-minute guy. “But when he got here, his ability to pass the ball and play pick-and-roll superseded our first evaluation of him. In AAU, there is no pick and roll. High school is just mainly motion [offense]. But certain things we saw him do with the ball in his hands, we were like, 'Wow, this kid will be really good in pick-and-roll,' and now some of those things we liked have come to fruition maybe a little sooner than we anticipated.”
Against Ole Miss -- and again Saturday against Texas A&M, for sure (maybe Vanderbilt and LSU next week) -- Chiozza's plate figures to be full as the Gators move through the next few games minus the services of junior shooting guard Michael Frazier II, who suffered a high ankle sprain in the loss to the Wildcats.
Without its leading scorer and best outside shooter, UF will have to rely more on ball movement and spacing to manufacture offense as it faces some of the better scoring teams in the SEC.
In time, Chiozza will need to improve on his outside shot (he's made 51.5 percent of his field-goal attempts inside the 3-point line and 34.9 beyond it) as well as his free throws (54.2 percent), but that's part of being a 4-year player in a program that thrives best when it can ferry guys through the natural, developmental cycle.
In the interim, the Gators need the best of what the present-day Chiozza can give them.
“Lights out, I'm not the same person I was when I got here, basketball-wise,” he said. “But I am the same person mentally and how and I come to practice every day.”
