Through four games this season, it has been easy to guess where the Gators are going to find their offense.
On 108 shots, Florida’s 47 made threes are the second most in the nation, trailing only Purdue’s 50.
But while long-range shots again made up the majority of UF’s field goals in a 78-65 win against Wright State on Monday, they didn’t allow Florida to pull away from an overmatched opponent.
“There’s a real fine balance there,” Donovan said. “In the second half we were way too predictable on offense.”
After being outscored by the Raiders 36-34 in the final 20 minutes, Donovan called the Gators “stagnant” and “easy to guard” due to a lack of awareness of both their opposition’s foul trouble and his own players’ shot selection.
Though Florida led by as many as 16 points earlier in the second half, Wright State was able to cut the deficit to nine with five minutes left to play. The Gators hoisted 11 of 19 shots beyond the arc after halftime and made just four.
“Erving (Walker) had a wide-open look on the break and it rattled in and out, and then the next possession, (Mike) Rosario comes down, the ball gets thrown to him, and he lets one go that’s kind of a halfway decent shot,” Donovan said. “We just shot a three, we missed it, we had a pretty good look. Put the ball on the floor a little bit.”
As Florida’s starting point guard, Walker had nine points on 1-of-6 shooting from behind the arc, the second-most attempts behind Kenny Boynton’s 22 points on nine threes.
While Donovan said Walker struggled to find quality shots on his off night, he was encouraged by how the 5-foot-8 senior stayed involved with seven assists and five boards.
“Those are areas that we have to get better at, at least I do, of just illustrating those points, explaining those points and helping them get better,” Donovan said. “Because I think there was times in the game when we’re up 15 or 16 points and we self-sabotage.”
Despite making just one three for the second game in a row, freshman Brad Beal exemplified Donovan’s wish for better decision-making by scoring a career-high 22 points mostly off the dribble. Beal had five strong drives to the basket, with three layups and two dunks.
“He told us to attack the basket more because they were going to start closing out because we were hitting shots,” Beal said. “So we had to start attacking the basket more to try to get to the free throw line.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Florida point guard Erving Walker struggled with his shot against Wright State, finishing with nine points on 1-of-6 shooting from three.
