At another point this season, Florida will need to figure out how to execute in clutch situations.
It
most likely won't happen tonight, when the No. 8 Gators return home to
face Southeastern Louisiana at the O'Connell Center. Of the 347 teams in
Division I basketball, Southeastern Louisiana ranks 339th in RPI, which
measures a team's record (1-7) with its schedule strength.
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But
with a chance to pick up a statement road win at Arizona done in by poor
play down the stretch, Florida spent its last two practices trying to
learn from its mistakes.
“When you play against good teams, you've got to play all the way through for 40 minutes,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said.
The
loss against Arizona dropped Florida to 2-6 in its last eight games
decided by five points or less. Overall, Donovan is 58-74 in games
decided by five points or less in 17 seasons at UF. Turnovers, defensive
breakdowns and missed free throws have all played roles in Florida's
recent close losses.
Comparing it to a closer in baseball, Florida has had its share of rough outings in recent seasons.
“I
think obviously when you talk about a trend or a theme, it's a pretty
broad-based thing,” Donovan said. “If it was one specific thing where I
think ‘Geez, this is really causing us a problem,' but it's been a lot
of different things.”
One thing won't change — Donovan said he's
still comfortable with Kenny Boynton having the ball in his hands in
late-game and late-half situations. Boynton dribbled the ball off his
foot in the closing seconds of the first half, a turnover that resulted
in a Solomon Hill dunk that cut Florida's lead to 32-29 at halftime. In
the second half, Boynton took an ill-advised 3-pointer with 1:55 left
and 30 seconds on the shot clock and committed one of UF's three
turnovers in the final 56 seconds of the game.
In reviewing film
of the three straight turnovers on in-bounds plays, Donovan said the
first occurred when Boynton made a break to get open but stopped running
for the ball. The second came because Scottie Wilbekin broke too close
to the baseline on an Erik Murphy in-bounds, and the third he felt
Boynton anticipated getting fouled rather than being strong with the
basketball.
Donovan said he felt players in the final two minutes
became careless, expecting to be fouled right away rather than focusing
on getting the ball upcourt.
“What was most important was for us
to get the ball in bounds first,” Donovan said. “You know I told our
guys if in some way, we really, really learn from this, it will be very
beneficial going forward. If we didn't learn, it will be two things — we
didn't learn, and it was a tough loss.”
As the mistakes
snowballed, Donovan said he felt the Gators lost focus on the defensive
end on the floor. He thought Florida could have gotten stops following
two of the three in-bounds turnovers.
“Maybe we got a little
nervous,” Florida junior forward Will Yeguete said. “I don't know. I
feel like we had never been in that situation before, in the season, so
maybe that's why we were a little nervous about it. But we just have to
move on and move past that loss.”
Even with 7.6 seconds to play,
Florida had a chance for a final shot, but poor execution doomed the
Gators again. Donovan said both Murphy and Wilbekin ended up behind the
end line, and there was confusion over who would in-bound the
basketball. As a result, Arizona had time to set its defense in
transition, and Wilbekin flailed a last-second shot attempt that was
nowhere close to the rim.
“We didn't do a very good job there,” Donovan said.
Despite
the heartbreaking loss, Donovan said he was encouraged with how hard
and how well Florida executed on the road for 38-plus minutes. During a
one-and-a-half minute stretch at the end of the half and end of the
game, Arizona outscored the Gators 15-0.
“I think (the loss is) going to help us in the long run,” Yeguete said.
