Nonconference slate meant to test Gators
GAINESVILLE — Gators coach Billy Donovan would put his team’s nonconference schedule up against any in college basketball.
Thursday’s visit from Marquette begins a difficult three-game stretch for No. 7 Florida (5-0). The Gators own the 24th- toughest schedule, based on RPI rankings. UF follows a rematch of its 2012 Sweet 16 matchup — a 68-58 win against the GoldenEagles — with a visit next Wednesday to Florida State, another Sweet 16 team last March.
On Dec. 15, following exams, the Gators head west to face national power Arizona, which signed the nation’s top freshman class.
“Clearly, as it relates to most schools across the country, I think ours has got to be one of the more challenging nonconference schedules in the country,” Donovan said.
It has not always been that way.
In 2008 and 2009, on the heels of back-to-back national titles in 2006 and 2007, the Gators missed out on the NCAA Tournament despite winning more than 20 games each season. Weak nonconference schedules were a major culprit.
Florida was not alone in lining up nonconference slates with too much filler and too little meat. TheSEC received just three bids to the 2009 NCAA Tournament, even with conference commissioner Mike Slive serving as chairman of the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
That spring, Slive told SEC coaches it was time to beef up their schedules. The Gators followed suit and made the Elite Eight in each of the past two seasons.
But the way Donovan sees it, his Gators’ 2012-13 schedule is on steroids. Before SEC play opens, UF also has road games against Kansas State in Kansas City and at Yale. A neutral site game against Air Force also should test the Gators.
Asked last week about the lineup of nonconference games, Donovan quipped the Gators eventually might look to line up the Lakers.
At the same time, Donovan sees a potential longterm benefit to facing tough competition for two months before SEC play opens Jan. 9 at home against Georgia.
“It’s challenging right now,” Donovansaid. “[But] I think after November and December are done with we’ll look at our nonconference schedule and say, you know what, there isn’t a style or a system or a situation that we really haven’t had a chance to get exposed to.”
Up to now, Florida rarely has been challenged, earning five wins by an average margin of 23.8 points, though players wonder if that has more to do with the Gators than the competition.
“Either we’re just playing at a high level right now or other teams haven’t been able to match our intensity and energy. We’ll see,” center Patric Young said. “We haven’t really been down or had to face much adversity in the games that we’ve played.”
Marquette (4-1) lost its two top scorers from last season, but it will challenge Florida with a deep, balanced lineup. Seven players average at least five points and more than 16 minutes per game. Davante Gardner (6-8, 290) leads the team with 14 points and 6.5 rebounds a game.
Despite Florida’s early success, Donovan said his team has plenty of room to improve.
Florida has a poor assistto-turnover ratio of 13 assists to 12.8 turnovers and the team’s 3-point defense — last in the SEC a season ago — lagged during the second half of its 79-66 win against UCF. The Knights were 8-for-10 beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes.
To remain unbeaten, the Gators cannot afford to let upas the schedule toughens — a challenge Donovan’s players embrace.
“It’s a time for us to find out what we’re really made of,” Young said.