Coach Amanda Butler’s team lacks experience, something she hopes to compensate for with a mental edge.
Confidence and toughness have become themes of offseason chatter, and Butler hopes those aspects will be ingrained in her players every time they step on the court.
The coach emphasized those keys again Wednesday when she and center Azania Stewart represented the Gators in Hoover, Ala., at the Southeastern Conference media day.
“To me, [toughness] is a great equalizer,” Butler said. “Regardless of whether you’re playing someone who may be more experienced, who’s a little bit taller, who’s more athletic, maybe they’ve got a better coach. Whatever the case may be, I think that toughness can level the playing field.”
And Butler will need some sort of equalizer this season. With six newcomers, one senior and only two starters returning from last year’s 15-17 team, doubts surround the program and its ability to succeed in the competitive SEC.
In fact, preseason media polls predict the Gators to finish in a tie for last place with Mississippi State.
That has Stewart fired up.
“It makes you angry, but it just adds fuel to the fire and makes you work harder,” Stewart said. “We really want to show them what we have.”
She knows the nature of the SEC and thinks her time spent playing for Great Britain’s Olympic team over the summer will bring more physicality to her game. Stewart said she has been readying her teammates for conference play.
“You can’t sleep on any team in the SEC,” Stewart said. “There’s some good teams out there. They have to be ready for us, just as much as we have to be ready for them.”
Butler praised Stewart for her leadership in practice and for helping the young players develop. But Stewart said the newcomers have so much energy that she finds herself working harder to keep up.
Butler plans to take advantage of that energy by making a transition in the offensive game plan.
Last year, UF mostly ran a half-court offense, relying on set plays to score points and move the ball.
She said the Gators now have the personnel to play a full-court game, in which there is little structure and the emphasis is placed on letting players make instinctive decisions.
“It’s not about the coach calling the plays as much as it is them stepping up and bringing what they bring to the table,” she said.
Whether these Gators have enough will be determined in January, when conference play begins.
UF hosts Tennessee and Kentucky, the SEC’s preseason No. 1 and No. 2 teams, respectively, over the course of seven days early in league play.
And Butler wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I think if you’re a competitor, and in particular if you’re a great athlete, that you really want to find out how good you are,” Butler said. “There’s not any question that this is the league you come to and play in.
“It’s fun to compete on that level every night, but it’s not for the faint of heart.”
