During the offseason, Billy Donovan warned Erving Walker the upcoming season would be the toughest of the point guard's life.
Without Nick Calathes leading the Gators on the court, the sophomore will be counted on to help fill Calathes' shoes and take control of Florida's backcourt this year.
"Nick made the game pretty easy for him," Donovan said. "There was always a level of relief and pressure there because he handled the ball all the time. There were some things Nick did for Erving that made him better. I think Erving will embrace and take on the challenge that he's got in front of himself right now."
Walker will move to his natural position at point guard after playing off the ball last season.
While replacing Calathes' 17.2 points, 6.4 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game won't fall entirely on Walker, UF doesn't have much backcourt depth to back him up.
But Walker isn't shying away from the increased role he'll play this season.
"I've never heard of a player that complained about playing a lot of minutes," Walker said. "That was my natural position in high school, so I'm not uncomfortable with that. There's definitely an adjustment at the college level, but that's where I'll be this year."
Before signing freshman Nimrod Tishman, the Gators had only three scholarship guards on their roster: Walker, sophomore Ray Shipman and freshman Kenny Boynton, who is expected to immediately become an impact scorer for UF.
Having lost Jai Lucas (transfer) early last season, Walter Hodge (graduation) and Calathes (pro career), Donovan had trouble finding another guard during the later months of the recruiting season.
He successfully landed Tishman out of high school in Israel, but the program is still jumping through hoops to get the point guard eligible to play once the season starts.
"He's clear and eligible to practice, but if we were to play tomorrow, he would not be cleared to play," Donovan said. "It's a process our school has to go through, and when that process gets done, it's probably more in the NCAA's hands."
At this point, Donovan said, all signs point to Tishman being cleared to play by UF's first game on Nov. 2. The process is still ongoing, however, and the NCAA Clearinghouse still has to make a ruling.
Donovan is still keeping the hype in check, as he said the most he expects out of Tishman is to take some of the strain off his starters and run the offense for a few minutes per game in relief of Walker and Boynton.
"We want to run and press and do those things, but we've also got to create situations during the course of the year where both of those guys, who could potentially be two of our better scorers, are not just worn down coming down the stretch of games where we may need their scoring," Donovan said.
Should Tishman be ruled ineligible - or one of Florida's guards suffers an injury or gets into foul trouble - Donovan has a contingency plan. Junior forward Chandler Parsons or senior forward Dan Werner could slide into the two-guard role.
"We can go big. We can go small. We can put me and Dan in the backcourt. We can put me and Dan in the frontcourt," Parsons said. "We can do different things with different guys, so I definitely think it'll benefit us."
