There’s no easy way to stop South Carolina guard Devan Downey.
When asked how he plans to do so, UF coach Billy Donovan gave a desperate response.
“Go to church and pray,” Donovan said.
Downey scored 36 points against the Gators in Gainesville on Jan. 23, and he’s been nearly as impressive against the rest of the Southeastern Conference.
The 5-foot-9 guard is averaging 30.9 points, taking 22.5 field-goal attempts and getting to the line 9.25 times per league game.
“I wish I could sit here and say, ‘OK, we’re going to make him go left every time and he’s never going to score,’” Donovan said. “He gets 30 for a reason against everybody. He’s really a problem.”
Florida will get another chance to try to stop Downey tonight at 8, when the Gators take on the Gamecocks in the Colonial Center in Columbia, S.C.
“He has the whole package,” Donovan said. “He has deep three-point range. He can stop on a dime and shoot runners. He goes to the free-throw line eight to ten times a game. When he gets in the lane, he’s one of the few guys I’ve seen at his size that plays like a monster in the paint.”
The only thing that might slow down Downey is his health entering the game. According to The State, he did not practice and wore a protective boot Tuesday after rolling his ankle Monday, but he is still expected to play tonight.
When preparing to face an elite player like Downey, UF usually designates someone to simulate that player in practice. Sophomore point guard Erving Walker said Downey’s skill set kept the Gators from finding one player to mimic him.
“He has so much freedom on that team. He’s pretty much going to get his,” Walker said. “It’s hard to stop a player like that.
“He’s probably half of their offense, maybe more than half, so we expect him to shoot a lot of shots — I’d say at least once every other time.”
Walker’s estimation isn’t that far off based on Downey’s statistics in conference play.
Downey has taken 180 shots, more than twice as many as the next South Carolina player (Sam Muldrow, 87) and 37.6 percent of his team’s output.
Even though everyone knows the Gamecocks offense runs through Downey, Donovan said it’s nearly impossible to keep him from taking that many shots.
He took 25 in the O’Connell Center last month, and no matter what defense the Gators threw at him, he found a shot.
On the Gamecocks’ last possession, Downey drove the length of the court, burned UF’s entire team and banked in an improbable floater to put his team up by one.
“I don’t think you can just eliminate his shots,” Donovan said. “There were things we tried to do, trapping him at the end of the game, that were very ineffective because he went right around the trap.”
Walker said he doesn’t expect the Gamecocks to change their offensive game plan, as it was nearly effective enough to get them a win against the Gators earlier this season.
UF only escaped with a victory due to Chandler Parsons’ last-second three-pointer.
“They had success with that on our court,” Walker said. “We ended up having to win at the buzzer, so I’d think they’ll use the same strategy.”
KADJI SET FOR SURGERY: Sophomore center Kenny Kadji will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a bulging disk in his back today.
He hasn’t played since UF’s 80-59 win over Florida A&M on Dec. 1.
