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No pressure as UF presses on

With just 8 players, the Gators revised their all-out defensive strategy with much success.

By JOANNE KORTH

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 9, 2001

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Florida coach Billy Donovan wouldn't go so far as to call it trickery. He doesn't intend to fool his team.

It just happens.

The Gators open every game applying their trademark fullcourt pressure. Caught up in the action, players lose track of how many times during the game Donovan calls it off.

"I think if you ask them, "What's your style of play?' they would say running and pressing," Donovan said. "I always try to start the game in the press because that's what they identify with."

But it's no longer something they can get away with. Not for an entire game. Down to an eight-player rotation, No. 5 Florida has scaled back on the fullcourt pressure that propelled it to the NCAA championship game last season.

Facing the daunting prospect of playing three games in three days to win the SEC tournament, the Gators are relying on new, energy-saving ways to wreak havoc in the halfcourt.

The Eastern Division's No. 2 seed, UF plays first-round winner Alabama at 7:30 tonight.

"If I were to say to the players we're not going to press to start the game, they would say, "Why? You don't think we can do it?' " Donovan said. "I still think it is their badge of honor. But without Brent Wright, it's very fatiguing for Matt Bonner to be at the front of our press."

Wright, a senior forward, has missed three games since aggravating his fractured right foot Feb. 21, leaving a thin frontcourt. He hopes to return for the NCAA Tournament.

Until he does, UF will press on without the press.

"Even though our defense is not extended for 94 feet, there are still some things we can do within our halfcourt defense to be disruptive," Donovan said.

Donovan likes the press not only because it creates fatigue, but it also keeps teams from setting up their offenses and takes them out of rhythm. Undermanned, the Gators are applying those same principles to their halfcourt defense.

They are trapping in the low post and on the perimeter off pick-and-rolls, creating the same scrambling, panicked situations in the halfcourt they used to create in the open floor.

"We've definitely been guarding people hard in the halfcourt," junior center Udonis Haslem said. "We're making teams take tough shots. The last few games, we've shown terrific intensity on the defensive end of the court."

UF held SEC West winner Mississippi to 36 percent shooting in a 75-55 victory Feb. 21. It held Vanderbilt to 36 percent in a 72-62 road victory Feb. 28. It held Kentucky to 36 percent in the first half of a 94-86 victory Sunday.

"I didn't want us to be a team that just comes back and plays halfcourt defense," Donovan said. "We're being very disruptive in the halfcourt, but it's not nearly as fatiguing on our guys."

Last season, the Gators had an endless supply of energy, overcoming youth with depth and pressure. In the NCAA Tournament, only Mike Miller averaged more than 30 minutes, while 10 players averaged at least 10 minutes.

Without Wright in the lineup the past three games, four starters have averaged more than 30 minutes. The fifth, guard Brett Nelson, led the Gators in minutes during the season but was in foul trouble two of the past three games.

A valiant effort by the three-player bench allowed UF to press Alabama the entire game in an 89-68 victory Feb. 24, but tournament play does not allow enough recovery time between games for the Gators to risk total fatigue.

But that's okay.

The players are aware.

They can list a variety of ways UF is making up for the loss of its deadliest weapon: with experience, with discipline, by making the extra pass, by making teams play defense for 35 seconds.

"We're doing a lot more of the little things," Nelson said. "We're not making as many mistakes. But we're still pressing probably three-quarters of the game."

Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

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