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ANTONYA ENGLISHBilly Donovan looks for his team to pull together and salvage a season gone sour.
The way Billy Donovan sees it, these are the times that ultimately will define the character of his Florida basketball team.
Fighters or quitters.
Florida has lost seven of its past 10 and four of its past five. It has gone from No. 1 in the nation to unranked. Starting forward Christian Drejer abruptly quit Wednesday and joined a professional team in Barcelona, Spain.
Five regular-season games are left, and the Gators' pride and postseason aspirations are at stake. Since 1985, no team that was ranked No. 1 during the season has failed to make the NCAA Tournament. With eight of their 10 scholarship players either freshmen or sophomores, there aren't many who have dealt with such adversity.
Don't expect Donovan to start handling the team with kid gloves. His mind-set is more like that of a whitewater rafting tour guide.
"I liken it to this," he said, "When you fall off the boat, what do they tell you to do? Participate in your own survival. ... Right now, we're out of the boat and we have to be active participants in our survival. To me, if a guy's off the boat drowning, I'm not going to sit there saying, "It's going to be okay, don't worry about it, everything's all right.' That's not reality: You tell the guy to swim."
It's a mentality the players embrace.
Junior forward David Lee admits Drejer's departure threw the team, especially him. He considered the Denmark native his closest teammate, and he never got a call saying Drejer was leaving. But now, he said, it's time to move on.
"I think we're going to swim back to the raft and get back on," Lee said. "I haven't lost hope yet. I'd be the first one to say that guys have packed it in if they had. I'm still very much on this raft, but it's very much a challenge. We have a couple of tough games coming down the stretch and we're in a position where we need to win the majority of them. We've got to win some of these games to give our resume a little boost, and I think we can do that."
The challenge begins tonight in Oxford, Miss. Florida plays an Ole Miss team that is 11-3 at home and trying to extend its home winning streak to five games. Senior forward Justin Reed leads the SEC in scoring.
"Florida is coming in here now, and they have had some problems recently, but I'm sure they will be ready to play," Mississippi coach Rod Barnes said. "To have any chance, we are going to have to play very well defensively. I really feel for Florida and what they are having to deal with, losing a player this time of the season like that. I'm concerned about it and hopeful this sort of thing does not become a trend."
Florida's success could hinge on Lee's play in the post. He spent the offseason training with a professional coach to improve his free-throw shooting and his outside shot. He bulked up to 249 pounds to become a stronger presence inside. He has improved his free-throw shooting from 59 to 65 percent, but in several of Florida's losses, opponents have dominated with their interior game. Florida's production in the paint, including Adrian Moss and Bonell Colas, has been inconsistent.
Lee scored a season-high 24 against Alabama in Jan. 27, then three games later had four points and four rebounds vs. Vanderbilt.
"I think Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Tennessee made a concerted effort to double team right away," Lee said. "I haven't been real happy with the way I've been finishing around the basket. I think I've adjusted as far as double-teaming, but at the same time I think I've been worried about it too much. I just need to go play and finish and not worry about it. If they decide to come double team, then we'll get the guards some open shots."
Lee averages 13.9 points and 6.9 rebounds but remains the focal point of opponents intent on shutting down Florida's inside game. As Lee is the most experienced player on the team, his leadership is more critical than ever.
"I think a lot of this will fall on the shoulders of myself, (guard) Anthony Roberson and (forward) Matt Walsh," Lee said. "Even though those guys are only sophomores, they put in a whole year of basketball last year and they've played huge minutes. It's a situation where we've got to bring these guys together and we need to be on the same page. I can understand our team being upset about losing a few games lately, but we need to pull together, not pull apart."
Donovan wants Lee to improve his performance without taking on added pressure: "I think right now, he needs to lead by example, that's the best thing he can do."
Ultimately, Donovan said, one player won't determine Florida's fate. Florida's survival, or its demise, will be a team effort, Donovan included.
"It's not about Christian Drejer right now," Donovan said. "It's going to come down to, are they willing to fight? Is Ryan Appleby, when he gets in, going to be tough enough with the ball to run our offense? Is Mohamed Abukar going to be tough enough at the small forward spot to go in there and rebound and bang and give me everything he's got? Is Chris Richard going to be able to play without getting into foul trouble? Is David Lee going to step up and dominate and play?
"And finally, is Billy Donovan going to be able to get these guys to do all those things? That's what the embracing part is. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it our not, but I'll tell you this: I'm going to try like hell."