During the offseason, Billy Donovan told Erving Walker this season would be the toughest of his life.
The sophomore point guard has had his ups and downs this year, but he hasn’t backed down from his coach’s challenge.
“I wouldn’t say the hardest. Basketball is basketball,” Walker said. “It’s been challenging, and I’ve had some rocky points and some high points, but I’d say that’s just how life is in general. I’m just embracing it.”
With Florida on a two-game losing streak and entering the most critical stretch of its season, the team will lean on its 5-foot-8 point guard to lead them on the court.
The Gators will need him to be on top of his game if they hope to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years.
But for the quiet, mild-mannered Walker, assuming a leadership role is still a work in progress. He has embraced the role of floor general as the starting point guard, but he has yet to take on all the responsibilities his coach wants him to.
“Your team follows and goes off your point guard,” Donovan said. “Erving, in a positive sense, has a really calm demeanor about him and is very, very under control and does not get too rattled.
“Sometimes he has got to, even in practice, show a little more intensity, some more focus, some more fire — not necessarily with his mouth, but a lot of times with his actions.”
Walker has been struggling on the floor lately. His usually impressive assist-to-turnover ratio has taken a hit since UF’s 61-60 loss to Tennessee, when the Volunteers rattled the point guard with pressure in a way he hadn’t seen all year.
Walker has 23 assists to 21 turnovers over the Gators’ five games since Jan. 31. Removing those contests, he has 106 assists to just 40 turnovers on the year.
At the beginning of the Southeastern Conference season, it seemed as if he could hardly miss from three-point range, and he shot 47 percent from the field in the Gators’ first six league games.
Over the last five games, Walker cooled down a bit, making just 21 of 57 attempts from the field (37 percent).
“I try to have a short-term memory when it comes to turnovers and shooting and just go on with the next play,” Walker said. “This is new to me, but so far, it’s going pretty good.
“We stumbled the last few games, but we’ve just got to pick it back up.”
Those struggles even carried over off the court last week. Walker was late to a team meeting Saturday morning and had to sit out of the starting lineup for the first time all season.
Donovan said the incident was an exception to the rule for Walker, but the coach still expects more out of someone looking to become more of a leader.
“As a point guard, he needs to understand the level of accountability he needs to have,” Donovan said. “He needs to be not only there and on time, but he should be the point guard huddling these guys up talking about what we need to be doing.
“Hopefully that situation will be an opportunity for him to grow.”
