Five months ago, by his own admission, Brad Beal was comfortable with deferring to the rest of the Gators’ veteran guards after four years of carrying the scoring load in high school.
But he is now a different kind of freshman than the one who first stepped into Florida’s starting lineup in November.
“Now I have a team that you can throw the ball to Pat (Young) and get 20 any night or Kenny (Boynton), Erving (Walker) or (Erik) Murphy,” Beal said. “Just about anybody on our team can score the ball, so it is just a big relief off of me transitioning into college.”
Though he was one of Billy Donovan’s highest-rated recruits in recent memory, Beal said he didn’t want to be stereotyped as the hyped first-year player who comes in thinking he owns a team.
As the Gators lost teammates to injury, and defeats piled up down the stretch, Donovan began to ask more out of the 6-foot-3 guard. When Will Yeguete was sidelined for the season on Feb. 21, Beal slipped into the rotation at power forward, even though he is a natural shooting guard and was already playing out of position as a small forward.
It was also the right moment for Beal to stop minding his manners as much around his teammates.
“[Coach Donovan] said it’s time to stop trying to not step on everybody’s toes, he said it’s time to become more of a leader and start pushing guys to get better,” Beal said. “And really just taking more of a leadership role.”
Heading into his first NCAA Tournament, Beal has arguably become the most important facet of the Gators’ offense and the key to whether they can keep pace on the boards.
In the second half of the season, Beal has led No. 7-seed Florida in both scoring with 15.1 points per game and rebounding at 7.2 per game.
“The one guy that I would say that’s probably rebounding at the level that’s impacted our team, I think is Beal,” Donovan said. “I think he’s really, really rebounded the ball well.”
As a precursor to Florida’s first-round matchup Friday in Omaha, Neb., against 10th-seeded Virginia, Beal enjoyed a stellar Southeastern Conference Tournament in which he scored 36 points in two games, including 20 against top-ranked Kentucky.
For his efforts, Beal made the SEC All-Tournament Team a week after becoming the Gators’ first player to be named first-team All-SEC and SEC All-Freshman in the same season.
“The SEC Tournament was just a glimpse of what the NCAA Tournament is going to be like,” Beal said. “I am sure it is going to be more competitive and teams are going to be ready to play, so I am really looking forward to everything.”
While Beal said he is living out his dream of making it to The Big Dance, his teammates are wary of putting too much pressure on him ahead of his inaugural tournament appearance.
After struggling with his 3-point stroke consistency for much of the year, Beal shot 43.8 percent from three last week against Alabama and Kentucky in the SEC Tournament — 10.9 percentage points above his season average.
“I’ve been to two NCAA Tournaments before and ... sometimes his position is a big part of our team as a freshman,” junior Erik Murphy said. “‘He’s never been in that situation before, so maybe I can help him out and just try to guide him a little bit.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Freshman UF guard Brad Beal (center) has led the Gators in scoring (15.1 points per game) and rebounding (7.2 per game) during the second half of the season.
