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Friday, March 29, 2024
<p>Dorian Finney-Smith passes the ball during Florida's 75-55 win against Auburn on Thursday in the O'Connell Center.</p>

Dorian Finney-Smith passes the ball during Florida's 75-55 win against Auburn on Thursday in the O'Connell Center.

Four games into conference play, one would expect to see some consistency from a team that’s already played through some growing pains in a 13-game non-conference schedule.

But the most fans have seen from Florida in conference play has been the starting lineup: Devin Robinson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Chris Walker, Kasey Hill, Chris Chiozza. It has been the same in Florida’s four Southeastern Conference games so far but the list of constants ends there.

One game it’s free-throws. The next it’s turnovers or three-point shots, but besides those collective team inconsistencies, individual players are struggling game-to-game with their own inconsistencies.

Coach Billy Donovan did say that one player has routinely come through.

"By far the greatest growth I’ve seen is in Dorian from the standpoint that he’s been relatively consistent this season," Donovan said. "He didn’t play great in the game (vs. Georgia) but he’s been a consistent player, unlike a year ago, so he’s made a step in the right direction there."

Donovan couldn’t say the same about fellow sophomores Walker and Hill.

The Gators are fresh off their first SEC defeat since 2013 at the hands of the Bulldogs. Donovan’s concern now is if his team can put the disappointing defeat behind them in order to be successful in the long list of dogfights ahead.

In Florida’s first game since seeing the NCAA’s second best conference winning streak in the past 50 years snapped, the Gators (10-7, 3-1 SEC) will host LSU (13-4, 2-2 SEC) at 7 p.m in the O’Connell Center.

LSU’s starting forwards Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey are averaging more than 15 points per game. No Gator player is currently averaging more than 14 points per game. Finney-Smith leads the Gators with an average 13.9 per game.

"Those two guys are really, really talented good players, and you know we’re gonna have to be position-wise in some very, very good spots, but I think that we’ve got to play team defense," Donovan said. "This is a very, very explosive team offensively, extremely explosive. Everybody on that floor, for them, you can honestly say that on any given night any one of those guys could go for 25."

Getting through to his players is a top priority for Donovan going into tonight’s game. He said he didn’t think he was able to accomplish that before the Georgia game and the team suffered from that.

"I don’t think, in my opinion, I did a very good job of getting our guys emotionally, mentally ready to play," Donovan said. "In terms of what I did do, we didn’t respond. To me, that was the disappointing part for me on a quick turnaround -- that I could have done a better job."

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He thinks this failure manifested itself on the court in various forms, which include a lack of focus, intensity and togetherness exhibited by his team.

Moving past the Georgia loss may be easier said than done, but with more than two full days between games, Donovan is hopeful his young team can pull together to correct the major cracks in their game that the Bulldogs exposed—specifically, turnovers. The gators committed a season-high 19 of them against Georgia. Donovan said he would have expected something close to that number against South Carolina (in which Florida committed 17 turnovers) or Auburn (13 turnovers) but not necessarily against Georgia.

"There have been some games where there wasn’t a lot of pressure, we turned it over, not turned it over," Donovan said. "We talk about it, address and try to keep getting them better, but your guess would be as good as mine as far as how we handle that (tonight)."

Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa

Dorian Finney-Smith passes the ball during Florida's 75-55 win against Auburn on Thursday in the O'Connell Center.

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