Billy Donovan's full-court press put some pressure on Florida's newest players last week.
Looking to experiment with a variety of lineups, Donovan had his defense cover the entire the floor early and often in last week's exhibition victory against Saint Leo, even though some of his first-year players were still adjusting to the system.
"One of the things I committed to in the exhibition game that probably wasn't the best thing for our team was I wanted all of our guys to press at some point," Donovan said.
The Gators' press was effective at times, but they gave up some open shots and found themselves occasionally out of position running back on defense. As a result, UF gave up 11 first-half offensive rebounds to a severely undersized opponent.
Overall, however, Donovan was encouraged by his team's first attempt at full-court pressure.
"Sitting there sometimes, you look at it and guys aren't rotating well, but there were a lot of situations where I think we did a good job applying pressure," Donovan said. "There were some broken plays where we didn't come up with the ball and they came up with it, or we rotated correctly and something crazy happened."
Donovan said he worked with his players in practice last week to improve their defensive rotations out of the press - an area in which the Gators struggled given their lack of experience playing together and the different lineups Donovan used. UF will get its last chance to do so before the regular season starts tonight at 7 in the O'Connell Center against Webber International.
Junior forward Chandler Parsons attributed the team's poor performance on the defensive glass in its first exhibition game to a lack of execution on defense and the 21 3-pointers Saint Leo attempted, which led to a lot of long rebounds.
"With us pressing and having to rotate, we were definitely at a disadvantage, but we've still got to come up with the ball," Parsons said.
Some of the Gators' newest players - Vernon Macklin, Erik Murphy and Rod Tishman - found themselves occasionally confused and making the wrong rotations, as they were still learning the system. Donovan likely will not force them to press in the regular season until they are comfortable, but he wanted to get everyone involved during the preseason.
"If we don't have a great pressing team in there, I'm probably not going to press as much as I did in the game against Saint Leo," he said.
The Gators' best pressing team, Donovan said, will include Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton, Ray Shipman and Dan Werner. Junior power forward Alex Tyus and center Vernon Macklin can fill the fifth spot, as both are athletic enough to consistently run the floor.
Fortunately for Donovan, UF's versatility will allow him to adjust his defense based on what lineup he wants to play, or vice versa. For example, he said, Boynton, Parsons, Werner, Tyus and Macklin may not create the most effective pressing lineup, but their length and athleticism would work to their advantage in a zone scheme.
"That's one of the things as a coaching staff we're working through right now - looking at different lineups for what is the best defense for us to play," Donovan said.
