Last season, Kenny Boynton had an opportunity to advance the Gators to the Final Four.
After Bradley Beal missed a three-pointer with 11 seconds left on the clock, he grabbed his own rebound and sent it back out to Boynton, who was waiting behind the arc. Boynton missed, Beal fouled and Louisville increased its lead as UF’s season ended in a 72-68 loss.
It wasn’t how the Gators wanted to end their season, and it wasn’t the way Boynton hoped to finish his career at Florida.
“I definitely want to go out as a winner, and that’s one reason I came back,” Boynton said. “When you have one more shot at it, it’s only one way. You’re only thinking championship. I’m going to try my best personally and to push this team to get deep in the tournament again this year.”
Entering his final season, Boynton is only 501 points shy of Ronnie Williams’ school record of 2,090. Boynton has averaged 529.7 points per season during his first three years.
Boynton also hopes that returning for his final season will increase his chances of making it to the NBA.
“Playing point guard will help my chances in getting to the next level,” Boynton said. “I think last year was a strong draft, and I would have a better chance in going this year.”
Boynton will be changing roles this season. Coach Billy Donovan would like to see Boynton be UF’s new vocal leader after the team lost point guard Erving Walker to graduation.
“With Erving not being here, hopefully [Boynton] can step up into more of a leadership role for us,” Donovan said. “Kenny has been one of those kind of quiet leaders where he doesn’t say a whole lot. I think a lot of times it’s done through how he performs and how hard he plays.”
Although he wants Boynton to be more vocal on the court, Donovan is cautious about putting the senior in an uncomfortable situation. Last season, Donovan pushed the quiet Walker into a leadership role — a process that was more difficult than expected.
However, Boynton has enjoyed his new role so far. He said he’s good at breaking down plays for the freshmen.
In addition to replacing Walker as a leader, Florida will need Boynton to fill his shoes at point guard. Walker left Florida as its all-time assists leader, racking up 547 in four years.
Boynton also plans to focus on being more consistent in his final season.
Boynton made 45.8 percent of his threes in the first half of last season before hitting only 34.9 percent after playing South Carolina on Jan. 14. Boynton shot only 5 of 24 from beyond the arc in the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m going to try to stay in the gym as much as possible this year,” Boynton said. “Just get a lot of repetition. Basically prepare my body for the middle of the season when my body gets tired.”
Boynton hopes that spending his summer in Las Vegas working on his conditioning and playing five-on-five games with professionals such as Dion Waiters, Maalik Wayns, Tu Holloway and Hollis Thompson will help him excel in his new role this season.
“I pretty much tried to play point guard no matter what team I was on,” Boynton said. “The way they play is more physical. It helped me coming in every day and working with guys like that.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Senior Kenny Boynton poses during media day on Oct. 10. Boynton wants to help his NBA chances by playing point guard in 2012.
