GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- When it comes to defense, Florida coach Billy Donovan knows what’s he going to get from junior guard Kenny Boynton, who also happens to be the leading scorer for the Gators.
More often than not, Boynton is assigned the UF opponent’s best perimeter offensive player, which doubles the pressure for a guy also expected to put the ball in the basket at his end.
That's a lot of leaning on one guy.
"I’m OK with that,” Boynton said.
Take the trip here last year. The Gators were facing No. 6 Kansas State, led by All-America guard Jacob Pullen, always a danger to go microwave (as evidence by the 35 he hung on rival Kansas later that season). Boynton, the former McDonald’s All-American from nearby Pompano Beach, was in a bad early season shooting slump; a combined 3-for-21 his previous two games, just 29 percent from the 3-point line through the first nine games.
Pullen, turned out, provided the perfect teaching moment.
Donovan’s message was simple and direct.
“I know when he wants me to lock a guy down,” Boynton said. “He preaches it all week and just tells me, ‘I need you to play defense.’ But sometimes, in a game, he gets really, really serious and makes it clear that he really, really wants me to play defense. When he’s like that, I just try to focus and shut my man down.”
With Boynton in his jersey, Pullen finished just 6-for-17 from the floor in 37 minutes (1-for-7 on 3-pointers) and K-State on offense just tanked in a 57-44 victory for the Gators. What’s more, Boynton’s activity on defense helped find his rhythm on the other end. His eight straight second-half points swelled a nine-point lead to 17 and kicked in an easy victory over a top-10 opponent.
“If Kenny Boynton is not scoring or making shots, it is not the end of the world for our team because there are so many other things he does,” Donovan said before starting a list of those attributes with his favorite one. “He’s a great on-ball defender.”
He’ll need to show it again Saturday, as Boynton and the 13th-ranked Gators (7-2) return to the BankAtlantic Center to take on No. 22 Texas A&M in the latest MetroPCS Orange Bowl Classic. The Aggies play a more deliberate style than the Gators, but they’re shooting 47.2 percent from the floor and have out-rebounded their opponents by more than 10 per game. Shooting guard Elston Turner, the Aggies’ No. 3 scorer, is hitting 45 percent from the floor and 40 percent from the arc.
“I’ll think I’ll have that guy,” he said.
Boynton, averaging 18.7 points per game, will make his latest homecoming coming off a 26-point effort in a Dec. 9 win against Rider, an output just two points off his career best. Donovan, though, was equally pleased with Boynton’s five rebounds, three assists and no turnovers in the game, especially after a ragged display (season-low 9 points on 2-for-11 shooting) the outing before in an overtime win against Arizona when UF’s defense did not spring to life until late.
Rider is no A&M, but the Florida coaching staff last week challenged Boynton, the 6-foot-2, 189-pounder, to help the team in other ways besides scoring. He not only accepted the challenge, he embraced it, then answered it.
“All great players want to be challenged, and I think all great players want to be well rounded,” Gators assistant coach Norm Roberts said. “I don’t think Kenny wants to be pigeonholed as a shooter or scorer. I think he wants to be a complete player. I also think he understands he has extremely good quickness with his feet and does a nice job of getting around screens and making it tough on guys to score. That’s a role we need him to play for us at times -- as well as scoring.”
There’s no arguing that Boynton’s game has progressed from his freshman season when he started the moment he arrived on campus and scored 1,001 points his first two seasons. But there’s still plenty of growth potential, as the Gators head toward the Southeastern Conference season. An opportunity against a ranked A&M squad and future SEC foe -- Florida is 0-2 vs. ranked teams this season, albeit with road losses at now-No. 1 Syracuse and now-No. 2 Ohio State -- represents another measuring stick.
The next stop in Boynton’s game just might be patience.
“He’s got to understand that the game is a long time. It’s a long game,” said Donovan, who wants to see Boynton and all his perimeter players do a better job of spacing the floor and recognizing when 6-9, 247-pound center Patric Young needs to get the ball, be it to go strong to the basket or pass back out to a shooter. “You’re always going to have, in our style of play, an opportunity to score.”
Defense, of course, can create those opportunities, which is the base of Florida’s up-tempo and frantic philosophy.
“Kenny’s amazing on defense. He’s always guarding the best player, so I take my hat off to him ‘cause he’s really playing both ends of the floor hard,” freshman swingman Bradley Beal said. “Everybody feeds off his defense.”
Including Boynton.
“My defense carries over to my offense,” he said.
In the search to take his game to the next level, there’s probably no better place to start than on defense. But Boynton's also at a time in his career for that defense to carry over into everything else.
“I really thought he had a great balance in the Rider game of when to pass, when not to shoot it, when to drive it,” Donovan said. “I think he’s grown in a lot of different ways and I’ve been really impressed with how far he’s come from his freshman to sophomore year, and from his sophomore to junior year. He’s become a more complete player.”
