For White, UF Defense Bordering on Indefensible

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Did Mike White's words Tuesday reveal more a sense of frustration or helplessness, as he searches for ways to get his Florida basketball team to play defense at merely a mediocre level?

You decide.

"To a certain extent, you can get a guy somewhat interested in defending through different ways of motivation to get them a little more interested or halfway committed. Whether that's finding a way to get them motivated by committing to their teammates, motivate them through starting or not starting, how many minutes they're playing, positive or negative reinforcement, film study … .," said White, as he ticked off options. "We're trying it all right now with these guys. We've said it from Day 1, [that] this team just struggles defensively. We're swinging at it. It's just tough. It's tough to beat good teams when you can't get stops down the stretch. Of course, [if] you score a couple more baskets, you can win the game. I know that. But we consistently struggle against good offensive teams, period."

Frustration? Helplessness?

Call it a draw.

White and his assistants shook their heads as they watched tape of the latest loss Saturday night on the bus ride back from Sunrise, Fla., where UF let a nine-point lead with five minutes remaining fritter away by missing nine of its final 10 shots and through a porous defense that surrendered one straight-line drive into the lane after another. The loss was the fourth in five games for the Gators (6-4), who are back in action Wednesday night against James Madison (4-8) at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center.

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's UF-JMU 'Pregame Stuff' preview here]

On Monday, the players screened clips of the Clemson game and, as it pertained to defense, basically saw the basketball equivalent of "Blair Witch Project."

"It's hard during the game to know just how good or bad defense is, but when we watched film, it was everybody," senior point guard Chris Chiozza said. "Not just one or two people. It was everybody. There were two or three possessions to start the second half where we didn't even know what defense we were in. We had like three possessions in a row where we had people in different defenses. I don't know? It didn't look good at all on film."

Post defense, from Gorjok Gak (12) or Kevarrius Hayes, and perimeter defense, be it from guards Jalen Hudson or KeVaughn Allen or Chris Chiozza, has been a constant struggle for the Gators this season.

Well before the Gators officially began fall practice, White spoke of how his greatest challenge for a program coming off an invigorating run to the Elite Eight would be getting this next bunch to commit to the defensive end like the 2016-17 group led by Kasey Hill, Devin Robinson and Justin Leon. If anyone still thinks White's words were hyperbole, they've not been paying attention the last three weeks.

So what can be done?

Like White said, the staff has tried just about everything, so Monday and Tuesday they tried something else.

Practice those two days were particularly intense, and especially loud, as far as the coaches were concerned. They've pleaded all season — ad nauseam — for players to collectively communicate on defense. The results have been sporadic, at best. So instead, the coaches did the talking the last couple days. In high volume, sometimes highly critical.

And there was another added twist. In competitive defensive drills previously, the losing unit in the time block had to run a "22." That's two down-and-backs in 22 seconds. This week, the losers ran 44s. Not fun, after going six, eight or 10 minutes full-bore. At all. Those who didn't make their times (and there were a handful) were penalized with more running at the end of practice.

Call it a deterrent to foster that motivation, White mentioned. Whether it translates to games remains to be seen. Any additional suggestions would likely be welcomed.

Trying to create a defensive makeup (over the Christmas break, no less) is hardly optimum; in some individual cases, maybe not even possible. But that's the current situation for the Gators.

"More than anything, I think it's pride and intensity and buy-in, mental and physical toughness — a lot of things that I don't think this team can hang its hat on right now," White said. "But I'm telling you, when you watch the film closely, it wasn't just Kevarrius Hayes and Gorjok Gak in ball-screen coverage getting driven to the rim. It was our 4s, our 3s, our 2s, our 1s, and everybody off the bench. We didn't have one guy in the Clemson game grade out at a 'C' or better defensively. So you can't win games that way unless you make a bunch of shots. The game plan for [James Madison] is not, 'Hey, let's go try to make a bunch of shots.' That's not a formula for success against the best teams in the country. We have to take a huge step defensively."

The alternative is more running.

Or something else.

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For White, UF Defense Bordering on Indefensible

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Chris Chiozza

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Kevarrius Hayes

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For White, UF Defense Bordering on Indefensible

Players Mentioned

Chris Chiozza

Gorjok Gak

Kevarrius Hayes

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