Let’s get one thing out of the way right now: Florida is not a consistently good outside shooting team.
We learned it last year, when the Gators shot 31.3 percent from three-point range but made 50.5 percent of their other field goal attempts en route to an overachieving NCAA Tournament appearance.
We have once again seen them struggle from long range this season, as UF is connecting on 34.4 percent of its shots from beyond the arc but making 51.9 percent of the rest of its shots.
Sure, the Gators will enjoy nights when Kenny Boynton, Erving Walker or Chandler Parsons catch fire and light it up from long range. But after a season and a half of watching the same core group of players, it’s safe to say great outside shooting is not in this team’s DNA.
The constant with this year’s squad — and it was true last season, too — is that Florida can lose on any given night because of its poor shooting but can also win on any given night because of its defense.
Florida coach Billy Donovan has publicly deflected attention from his team’s on-and-mostly-off outside shooting since last year, instead focusing on the things they can control.
As aggravating as it might be to hear Donovan ignore criticism of his squad’s shooting, it has proven to be the right approach with his players.
“That’s the main thing coach Donovan said: Worry about defense, and everything else will come,” senior center Vernon Macklin said. “We can’t control that, really, and that’s been working out for us.”
The players often say their shooting struggles are between their ears, and Donovan has sought to remedy that by putting the focus elsewhere.
An unexpected byproduct of that mentality has been, ironically, improved shooting. The Gators have hit 46.3 percent of their three-point attempts in the last three games, all of which have been impressive wins.
“You miss a shot, and now all of a sudden, you’re living in that play. And you come down the floor on the next play, and it affects something else. Now, that play has beat you twice,” Donovan said. “You have to have a short-term memory in competition. You’ve got to be able to move forward to the next play.”
While the lingering effects of poor shooting have often been detrimental to the team, the worst thing that can happen to Florida is actually believing it has become a great shooting team.
There’s a difference between shooting with confidence, as Donovan encourages, and thinking they are capable of outshooting teams.
That has happened at times the past two years, most memorably at Vanderbilt last season and against then-No. 4 Ohio State on Nov. 16. In each of those contests, UF gave up more than 90 points — the only times that has happened in regulation the last two seasons.
“There’s no question when the ball goes in the basket, that helps,” Donovan said. “But it can’t get to the point that if we’re not shooting the ball well, it bleeds into and affects the other things that they’re doing on the floor.”
Let’s get one more thing out of the way: Florida might not be able to shoot, and it might not actually matter.
