No. 7 Florida has exactly 24 days until its first official game against William & Mary on Nov. 14.
Coach Billy Donovan intends on using that time wisely.
"We can play a game right now. We could play a game. I don’t know if there would be anything we would do very well," Donovan said on Monday. "But we’ve got offenses in, we have our press in, we have transition offense in, we’ve got different defensive things in. I think the only thing we probably don’t have in is zone defense, offense against that."
The Gators held their first official practice of the 2014-2015 season on Friday, giving veteran coach Donovan a clear picture as to what his team needs to get done before that second Friday in November.
Getting the relatively young group on the same page is Donovan’s main concern now. Catching new additions, like sophomore transfer John Egbunu, graduate student transfer Jon Horford, freshman Chris Chiozza and freshman Devin Robinson, has been an expected struggle for the Gators.
"They have no idea where to rotate or where they’re supposed to be," Donovan said of the newcomers. "I always say with young guys sometimes young guys don’t communicate very well and part of the reason why they don’t communicate very well is because they don’t know what they’re doing. So those guys have got to get better there."
Full court press has been another point of weakness that has stuck out to Donovan in the first three days of practice — one of which was a no contact day. He said the team is "not very good right now" in that aspect, but he noted it may be too early to break down the parts of the press at this point. Though Donovan mentioned the potential for young players to contribute offensively.
"He’s been good. I mean, I think he’ll be fine," Donovan said of Chiozza. "I think the biggest thing in the press is he’s really good on the ball but the problem is when he’s off the ball, where you rotate to, when to come up, when to go back, how to read the floor. Those are things he’s going to have to learn and get better at right now."
Chiozza may not only be looked to for full court press but also for defensive leadership.
"For Chiozza, he’s a first year just like I was last year," said sophomore guard Kasey Hill. "On defense for example I didn’t talk a lot last year, and I can see him going through the same thing right now. Helping him in that way I could say I became more vocal."
After three practices so far this season, Hill identified a collective weakness that he has battled personally and this year’s team is battling it as a whole.
"We don’t talk a lot as much as last year," Hill said. "But I feel like we’re improving on that."
Hill learned his own lesson about being active and both vocally and physically during what Donovan described as an up and down freshman year.
"The one thing I was disappointed at him last year, and Kasey knows this because we had discussions about this, I thought a lot of times his effort and his energy was really up and down," Donovan said. "And he’s such a great kid, and he’s so laid back sometimes. It’s not a good disposition as a 6-foot-1 point guard, and I would say that since we’ve practiced, I have not seen any of that."
Over the summer, Hill took Donovan’s critique to heart and put in the effort. He lost weight and went from 180-185 pounds to 170-175 pounds. Hill said he also focused on learning more about UF’s game.
"Just learning, learning about pick-and-roll, jump shooting, jump shots, 15-footer, stuff like that," Hill said. "Just getting the offense ready, stuff like that."
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Kasey Hill poses during UF men's basketball's 2014 team media day.
