When asked what Florida needs to improve defensively this season, Dan Werner smiled and gave a simple answer.
"Hopefully stop people a little more than we did last year," the team's lone senior said. "That's probably what we've got to try doing."
The Gators finished a respectable fifth in scoring defense in the SEC last year, giving up 67.4 points per game, but the real problem can be seen in how well other teams shot against them.
UF finished 11th in the SEC in field-goal defense, allowing opponents to shoot 44.4 percent from the field and ninth in defending the three-point line, yielding a 35.1 percentage.
"We have not defended the 3-point line," UF coach Billy Donovan said at the team's media day. "We've always had a great differential in us defending the three and taking threes, and it was the other way around. Teams shot a way higher percentage than we did."
Since practice began on Oct. 16, the Gators have placed a greater focus on shoring up some defensive problems that plagued them last season. They will get their first chance to work out some of the kinks tonight at 7 in an exhibition game against Saint Leo in the O'Connell Center.
Although UF's offensive numbers were fairly impressive last season - the team averaged 77.1 points per game, third in the Southeastern Conference - its defense was consistently a cause for concern.
The Gators went 21-3 last year when they held opponents under 70 points, but they finished 4-8 when they gave up more than 70.
This year, UF will look to focus on becoming a stronger defensive team, a goal aided first and foremost by its new personnel. The projected starting lineup - Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton, Werner, Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin - creates a more traditional team and won't force Donovan to enter every game planning around his team's inherent disadvantages.
"The most reliable guys for us in our frontcourt (last season) were Dan and Alex, and it was pretty clear playing man-to-man that those guys were going to be in significant foul trouble," Donovan said. "So we tried to do some things defensively to really camouflage our lack of size and strength in our frontcourt."
The added numbers and versatility in the frontcourt will allow Donovan to press more and attempt to play more man-to-man defense, something he felt he couldn't do last year given his players' poor conditioning and lack of depth.
Werner was particularly afflicted by UF's scarcity of able-bodied big men, as he was forced to guard opposing power forwards and centers while playing more minutes than Donovan felt he should.
Despite that, Werner made the best of the situation. He finished third on the team last year with 42 steals, and as the consensus best defender on the team, according to his coaches and teammates.
Donovan attributed the 6-foot-8 forward's defensive success to his awareness and ability to see what's coming and said he would have no problem playing Werner at any position because of that.
This season, Werner will likely move to small forward and guard quicker, more athletic players on the wing. Regardless of where he plays, Werner still views his preparation and instincts as the keys to his defense - something he has tried to pass on to his younger teammates.
