Florida’s new McDonald’s All-American point guard showed off his shooting stroke at the team’s media day Wednesday.
After interviews had concluded, Mike Rosario stood at the top of the key in UF’s basketball practice facility and casually dumped in 3-pointer after 3-pointer, each with perfect rotation, as freshman swingman Casey Prather took the ball out of the net and loaded Rosario up for his next shot.
Unfortunately for Gators fans, only Rosario’s teammates will be taking his swishes out of the net this season.
Rosario, a 2008 McDonald’s All-American, transferred from Rutgers at the end of last season after averaging 16.2 and 16.7 points per game, respectively, in his two years in the Big East.
“It just wasn’t the right atmosphere for me,” Rosario said. “It just wasn’t a positive thing for me. The teammates that I had, they just didn’t want to work hard, and that’s what I was about. I wanted to push them, but they didn’t want to push me, and it just wasn’t the right atmosphere for me.”
One of Rosario’s new teammates is no stranger to pushing the 6-foot-3 point guard from New Jersey basketball factory St. Anthony High.
UF’s current point guard, Erving Walker, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native and also a junior, has known Rosario for years.
“I knew a lot about Mike, actually,” he said. “I’ve been playing against Mike since the seventh grade when we were at the little boys club and he would come in his baseball uniform and play against us. They didn’t win many times, but Mike’s a great player. He can really shoot the ball, he’s going to help us practice.”
That’s the task coach Billy Donovan is assigning to Rosario for his season on the bench — push Walker and shooting guard Kenny Boynton every day in practice.
Donovan issued the same challenge to senior center Vernon Macklin, also a former McDonald’s All-American, when he spent 2008-09 on the sidelines after transferring from Georgetown.
Macklin said he spoke with Rosario about what it’s like to transfer to UF and the frustrations of not playing for an entire year.
“I told him how tough it was,” Macklin said. “How, on game days, it’s just miserable to just sit there. Guys are getting hyped, and you got your street clothes on and you want to play so bad, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Macklin made it out the other side, averaging more than 10 points and five rebounds as a junior last season. Macklin said he will do anything he can to help Rosario stay positive and achieve the same success, but at the end of the day it can be a lonely year for transfers.
“It’s going to be tough [to keep Rosario positive], though, because when I was at Georgetown, Patrick Ewing Jr. was transferring [from Indiana] so I saw what he went through and then I had to go through it,” Macklin said.
For Rosario, the promise of what awaits him next season will have to be enough to keep him motivated.
Often bogged down in half-court sets at Rutgers, Rosario said he can’t wait to push the ball in Donovan’s fast-paced offense. Walker told Rosario that UF’s style of play fits the transfer perfectly, and Rosario said he made sure to take note of the Gators’ pace when UF beat his Rutgers team 73-58 in Atlantic City last season.
“I just like the way how coach [Donovan] tries to score the ball,” Rosario said. “Every eight seconds, he tries to get up the court and score the ball and that’s what I’m used to. I’m used to running and that’s what I wanted to do and that’s the type of team I wanted to be on.”
Though it won’t feel that way on gamedays, Rosario is a part of the Gators beginning now.
He’s already helped Prather with the finer points of quickly taking a made basket out of the net.
