OKLAHOMA CITY — Despite Florida’s 99-92 double-overtime loss to BYU, the Gators’ future still looks bright.
UF (21-13) achieved its goal of returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007, putting two disappointing years behind it and ushering in what the team hopes is a new era of success.
“I think coming out here and getting a taste of this is really going to help us for next year,” junior forward Chandler Parsons said. “Coming back tougher and stronger and hardened from our experience this year, as well as improving our individual skills and chemistry.”
Part of the reason Parsons can be so optimistic is that the Gators will seemingly keep most of their roster intact for the first time since the 2006-07 season.
Barring transfers, or someone unexpectedly leaving for a pro career, UF will only lose senior Dan Werner.
Coaches and teammates praise Werner’s work ethic and toughness, and he averaged 27.7 minutes per game this year. But his statistical production (4.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 33 percent shooting) won’t be hard to replace.
Aside from Werner, the rest of the Gators’ eight-man rotation should be set to return — a thrilling prospect for coach Billy Donovan.
“Looking at what we’ve got coming back, I’m excited about the nucleus of guys,” Donovan said. “I’ve got to try to find a way to add some depth to our team. I think that’s going to be important.”
The lack of depth in the backcourt was made all too apparent at the end of UF’s first-round loss to BYU, and Donovan will hit the recruiting trail hard to attempt to bring in another guard.
Point guard Brandon Knight, the nation’s top recruit according to Rivals.com, has Florida as one of his top-five choices, but Donovan will be competing to bring in Knight with Southeastern Conference rival Kentucky.
If Knight commits elsewhere, Donovan will look to sign another ballhandler with the team’s one remaining scholarship, or he will once again have to rely on guards Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton, Ray Shipman and maybe even Rod Tishman, who was a non-factor in his first year.
Keeping those players may be a tough task, however, as UF has lost 10 players to other schools since the 2003-04 season.
“I would expect everyone else to be back, but you never know,” Walker said. “Hopefully we do.”
The Gators have already signed two recruits for next season who should fill gaps in the frontcourt: Casey Prather, a 6-foot-5 small forward from Jackson, Tenn., and Patric Young, a 6-foot-8 center from Jacksonville.
If those two can contribute, while the rest of UF’s roster remains intact and some of the returning players improve — Donovan singled out forward Erik Murphy, who showed potential in his freshman season — the Gators could be on their way to making NCAA Tournament appearances a regular occurrence again.
“I think we come back next year with a lot of experience, and I think we’ll come back more of a hungrier team,” Boynton said. “With this loss, we’ll only build on it for next year and hope we get back to the NCAA Tournament again and make some more noise.”
