Finney-Smith Returning For Senior Season
Thursday, April 2, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Forward Dorian Finney-Smith is returning for his final season with the Florida Gators.
Finney-Smith, aka “Doe-Doe,” made the decision to come back for his fifth-year senior season Tuesday after a long meeting with Coach Billy Donovan and enlisting the input of NBA scouts regarding his draft potential.
He took the floor for individual instructions Thursday afternoon.
“I got all the information I needed to make a decision,” said Finney-Smith, who led the team in both scoring (13.1 points per game) and rebounding (6.2 per game) and garnered second-team All-Southeastern Conference honors during the 2014-15 season. “He didn't pressure me into anything, but rather let me be a grown man. Coach D is a mentor to me, I trust him and I'm happy and anxious to have another year with him.”
The 6-foot-8, 218-pound Finney-Smith made huge strides in his offense this past season. After sitting out the 2012-13 upon transferring from Virginia Tech, sophomore Finney-Smith was named the 2014 Southeastern Sixth Man of the Year on a team that went to the Final Four. He averaged 8.7 points and 6.7 rebounds off the bench, yet shot only 37 percent from the floor and 29.3 from 3-point range.
As a starter in 2014-15, he came out of the box slowly when he broke two bones in his hand five minutes of the season opener. Finney-Smith went on to shoot career-highs of 47.2 percent from the floor, with his 42.2-percent shooting from the arc best on the team.
His goal in returning is not just to improve on his personal numbers, but be at the forefront of rebounding the program from a 16-17 record that marked the team's first losing season since 1997-98.
“I feel like we'll have a great team coming back and we're going to do what it takes to lift the program back and play basketball the Florida culture way,” Finney-Smith said. “I got better, but it was a learning experience being a leader. Now, I'm anxious to build on everything I learned.”
