Billy Donovan knows he has to rebuild.
After ending a history-making 2013-14 season at the NCAA Final Four tournament, Florida men’s basketball program starts this season as a very different team — with a similar set of high expectations.
As he begins his 19th year coaching the Gators, Donovan looks to manage those high expectations and build a team that is strong enough to face the challenges ahead.
"I think they’re hopeful they can get back to that point, but they haven’t had to face a lot of adversity," Donovan said. "Personally, maybe at different points in time they did, but we never faced a lot of team adversity."
This season starts off with a heavier dose of adversity than last. Florida’s greatest challenge will be replacing the presence of four starting seniors, on and off the court.
"We’ve talked a lot about this in the off-season, not to say we’re going into the year hoping to lose or face adversity, how you respond to those things is going to be really important," Donovan said. "There’s no doubt in my mind Scottie (Wilbekin) had the year he had because he responded the right way to adversity. … Same thing with Patric Young. Same thing with (Casey) Prather, Will (Yeguete). All those guys responded well to that."
Donovan is hopeful one of the younger leaders of his team will respond well to early adversity this season.
Sophomore Chris Walker is suspended from the team for the first three games due to a violation of team rules, Donovan confirmed Wednesday.
Walker will miss an exhibition game against Barry and two home games against William & Mary and Miami.
"It’ll be tough, but I can get through it," Walker said.
Walker said he hasn’t spoken to Wilbekin, who faced a similar suspension at the start of last season, but he plans on reaching out to him.
Regardless of the late start, Donovan believes Walker’s greatest challenge this season will be managing the high expectations the Gators fanbase have placed on the young forward from Bonifay, Fla.
"Chris Walker played four minutes a game, all of a sudden everybody is expecting him to be a savior in the front court," Donovan said. "I can’t really tell you he is ready to handle that or capable of handling that or is in a position to handle that."
Sophomore center John Egbunu has been a big addition to Florida’s roster — literally and metaphorically. The Nigeria native is the tallest and heaviest player on the roster. At 6-foot-11 and 266 pounds with a wingspan of about 7-foot-4.
Egbunu is sure to make an impact — if he gets to play.
Egbunu is a transfer from the University of South Florida, so the Gators are in the process of petitioning the NCAA to grant him immediate eligibility .
"I would say that right now, if I had to guess, it’s probably leaning more towards him having to sit out this year," Donovan said. "We’re going to exhaust all of our avenues and see where it leads us."
As a freshman at USF, Egbunu started 31 of the Bulls’ 32 games, averaging 6.2 rebounds and 7.4 points per game.
Donovan said freshman guard Brandone Francis has yet to be admitted to UF.
Francis will not compete in the 2014-2015 season.
"There’s things he has to do academically while he’s here to get himself eligible to play," Donovan said. "If he progresses in his first semester like we hope he will, he’ll be allowed to come back to practice for the second semester."
DeVon Walker is out for the season with an ACL injury he suffered in July.
Junior forward Alex Murphy won’t likely see any action on the court until the spring semester. Donovan expects the mid-year transfer from Duke in 2013-14 to sit out the first eight or 10 games until he’s cleared from NCAA transfer regulations.
Donovan said he is pleased with the positive direction he has seen Eli Carter moving towards. He said the redshirt junior guard would be "much, much better in terms of his availability this year." Carter, who missed most of last season while he was rehabbing a leg injury, is recovering from a little bit of an ankle injury, Donovan said.
"He has a bone bruise right now that shouldn’t slow him too much," Donovan said. "But he could be limited the first couple days of practice."
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Coach Billy Donovan addresses media during the 2014 men's basketball team media day.
