Junior center Patric Young passed on the NBA Draft this year and will face higher expectations in his second season as a starter. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson, Reuters)
OMAHA, Neb. – Florida coach Billy Donovan will have his team on campus again next week. What the identity of that team will be going into 2012-13 will be, well, he’s got to figure that out.
Everyone but Mike Rosario – who is playing for the Puerto Rican national team – is expected to be back and enrolled in Summer B as Donovan begins workouts for next season.
The Gators return experience in their frontcourt in senior forward Erik Murphy, junior center Patric Young and junior forward Will Yeguete.
“Depth-wise, we have some really really good experience,” Donovan said on the SEC summer teleconference this week. “I think anytime you lose a starting point guard like we are with Erving Walker and you lose a top-five pick in Brad Beal, that certainly changes the complexion of your backcourt.
“We’ll have to create an identity back there.”
Rosario, a redshirt senior, returns in the backcourt, along with senior Kenny Boynton and junior Scottie Wilbekin. Boynton has been the only regular starter back there. And the Gators will have reserves in freshmen Braxton Ogbueze, Michael Frazier and Dillon Graham.
DeVon Walker, a late signee in the 2012 class, is new this year as is Damontre Harris. The South Carolina transfer won’t be eligible to play this year but should provide help in practice and keep redshirt sophomore Cody Larson from taking most of the physical beating from Young.
“I feel pretty confident in terms of our frontcourt of what’s returning,” said Donovan, “but I think anytime you take a point guard off a team that has been a starter for three years, there’s a different element, dynamic you have to deal with as you go into the following season.”
Donovan touched on several topics on the call, including:
– A new NCAA rule that allows coaches to send text messages to recruits. Donovan said that will help coaches get to know recruits and vice versa, something that is challenging in the recruiting process now and can be moreso if the player is outside the school’s geographic area.
Recruiting athletes closer to home makes it easier to build up relationships because they can visit the campus. But that’s more difficult the farther away they live.
“I’ve never felt like as a coach I’ve really had a chance to know a prospect, the prospect’s not really gotten a chance to know you,” said Donovan. “Now between caller ID and email and text messaging, these guys have the ability to communicate with who they want to communicate with and not communicate with people they don’t want to communicate with. If anything, if a kid is being inundated with a lot of messages by a lot of different schools, I think what it does is it allows that player to get a lot more serious earlier about, who does he want to look at?”
– UF recruited guards heavily in this class to be prepared. It signed three in Ogbueze, Graham and Frazier to prepare for potential losses of Beal, Walker and Boynton. Walker graduated, so Donovan knew there’d be one spot open, and Beal opted to leave early for the NBA Draft. Boynton considered it, but decided to return for his senior season.
“The kids coming in understand there’s a possibility there’s going to be some experience and some depth with Rosario, Scottie Wilbekin and Kenny Boynton,” said Donovan. “But thye also know after a year or so, things would really, really open up. The kids coming in seem like very good team guys. I’ll get a lot better feel now in July.”
