Florida coach Billy Donovan does not have to stretch his vocabulary when his team is lacking defensive intensity.
After dropping two games in 10 days to unranked opponents and allowing a .500 Tennessee team to hit half of its shots, there was little need for semantics when describing how Florida played during its most recent road loss.
“Whatever words you want to use in the Tennessee game, ‘flat,’ ‘uninspired,’ ‘step-slow,’ whatever the word is — we were that team,” Donovan said. “We did not play, in my opinion, with the level of energy that we needed to.”
Though No. 19 Florida (12-4, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) also suffered through a woeful, 20-for-56 shooting performance in its league opener, the emphasis for Donovan and his players ahead of tonight’s home tilt at 7 against Georgia (9-6, 0-1 SEC) has been defense.
The Volunteers shot 51 percent from the floor and hit 50 percent of their 3-pointers Saturday. Tennessee’s field goal percentage was the highest the Gators have permitted all season, leaving freshman guard Brad Beal to characterize Florida as looking “slow and lazy” at times.
“We didn’t play hard at all, basically,” Beal said. “We didn’t play great help defense, we weren’t guarding the ball well (and) our transition defense wasn’t good. We’ve had too many breakdowns during the game and it really cost us.”
The Bulldogs, who average 62.9 points per game, aren’t known as an offensive-minded squad. But, then again, neither were the Volunteers before their efficient, 11-point win.
Since Dec. 29, Florida has allowed four unranked teams to shoot a combined 44.8 percent from the field and 42.4 percent from three. In their first 12 games, the Gators allowed opponents to shoot 40.9 from the field and just 29.5 percent from beyond the arc.
UF is now tied with the College of Charleston, Wofford, Northern Illinois and Tulsa for the 138th-best field goal defense in the country at 41.9 percent.
“It has not been the same since before Christmas,” Donovan said. “The only two guys, in my opinion, who understand what this is all about are (Erving) Walker and (Kenny) Boynton because they have been through it. (Patric) Young, (Erik) Murphy and Beal – those guys are somewhat new to what this is all about and what is going on.”
Murphy, a 6-foot-10 junior forward, said that after UF beat FSU 82-64 on Dec. 22, defense took a back seat in practice as injuries and sickness forced four Gators to miss time.
“We lost that mentality a little bit,” said Murphy, who had a career-high four blocks against Tennessee. “I think we’re going to do our best. Working out in practice [Sunday] was really good, especially in those areas — defense and rebounding.”
Florida practiced twice on Sunday and, according to Beal and Murphy, never made a shot. Instead, Donovan placed plastic bubbles over the court’s hoops to make sure the team’s defensive toughness was addressed. Both players described the practices as their most physical of the season.
“Sometimes we get emotionally down on ourselves and down on one another,” Beal said. “And I really think that we need to grow up. We need to grow up a lot and just basically fight through adversity.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Coach Billy Donovan said the Gators have not had the same intensity on defense since beating FSU on Dec. 22, adding that first-year starters like Erik Murphy (back) are still learning to maintain focus on defense.
