Florida's players still fighting for success

By LARRY VAUGHT

Coming off an unbeaten Southeastern Conference season and Final Four appearance, Florida was tabbed as a preseason top 10 team.

Instead, the Gators are unranked now and only 12-10 overall and just 5-4 in SEC play after a loss at Vanderbilt this week going into Saturday night’s home game with No. 1 Kentucky.

Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy says Florida’s lofty preseason ranking was a reflection of respect others have for Florida coach Billy Donovan.

“A preseason poll is just a guess and typically you would say that Billy’s team will be there because of what he has done over the course of his career,” Kennedy said. “He’s one of the best coaches in college basketball, a first ballot Hall of Famer (in the future). They still pass the ball in typical Florida fashion and don’t give you anything easy. I still see a Florida team that is very capable.”

South Carolina coach Frank Martin says Donovan still has players fighting to succeed.

“They have young guys learning to accept new roles. They are going to keep getting better,” Martin said.

Donovan admits consistency has been an issue for his youthful team.

“Consistency and reliability issues have been there and we keep driving home the point that consistency is something they need to be focused on,” Donovan said. “Sometimes we have played really great together, sometimes we have not.”

Now he has to face what he says is the “best team in the country” in Kentucky.

ESPN GameDay will be in Gainesville for the 9 p.m. game on ESPN.

Donovan says his team will stay on a normal routine but he knows the exposure is great for college basketball.

“ESPN coming to campus is great probably for fans and college basketball people, but nothing changes for us in terms of what we do,” he said.

Florida certainly has to make big changes from the way it played in a 67-61 loss at Vanderbilt. The Gators fell behind 15-0, got outrebounded 42-26 and shot just 36.8 percent from the field.

Michael Frazier had a team-high 21 points at Vandy and leads the Gators in scoring at 13.4 points per game. But second-leading scorer Dorian Finney-Smith managed just four points. The Gators got no field goals, just four points and four rebounds from its low-post combination of Jon Horford and Chris Walker.

Walker and point guard Kasey Hill, both McDonald's All-Americans in high school, have not been the big-time players Florida anticipated this year.

Hill has been inconsistent and is shooting just 38 percent from the field and averages 7.8 points and 4.1 assists per game. Walker has not been the inside presence he was expected to be and averages only 5.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 15 minutes per game. He’s shooting 52 percent from the field.

"As much as I want the process to be fast forward, sometimes with these players they have to go through certain things before they actually can really grow, develop and become the player that maybe we envision, they envision themselves," Donovan said earlier this season when asked about them.

Georgia coach Mark Fox said it would be a mistake for any team, including Kentucky, to underestimate Florida.

“Florida is not a bad basketball team. Just a young team in a good league,” Fox said. “Florida lost so much experience off last year’s team. They have a lot of good days ahead of them. I don’t think anyone will be surprised when Florida is playing really well to end conference play.