In Florida’s second game against a top-10 team in three weeks, coach Billy Donovan can only hope the Gators aren’t haunted by the same mistakes.
Since giving up 16 turnovers in a Nov. 15 loss at second-ranked Ohio State, UF has cut down on its giveaways and upped its assists while playing against four teams at or below .500.
As No. 10 Florida (5-1) travels to the Carrier Dome to take on fourth-ranked Syracuse (7-0) tonight at 7, Donovan predicts that trend will be much tougher to continue in just his squad’s second true road game.
“I thought we forced some things (against OSU),” Donovan said. “I thought we tried to create something that wasn’t there that led to a tough shot or a turnover. We’re going to be put into probably twice as many situations like that Friday against their zone than we would’ve against Ohio State’s man-to-man.”
The Gators’ decision-making will be put to the test early on against the Orange’s vaunted 2-3 zone defense, which makes scoring inside difficult and entices teams to settle for long threes.
Through seven games, Syracuse has forced an average of 20.1 turnovers per game — the fourth highest in the nation.
Donovan stressed that patience by his guards would be the key to creating good looks. The Gators have lost to the Orange in their last two meetings in 2008 and 2009, with senior guard Erving Walker shooting a combined 10 for 26 in two games and a then-freshman Kenny Boynton hitting 7 of 17 shots in 2009.
“Not to say that we want to milk the clock all the way down, but if you don’t have what we want within the first 30 seconds, we have to do a better job of taking care of the ball and making decisions, unlike what we did in Columbus (against Ohio State) there in the second game,” Donovan said.
In the 33,000-seat Carrier Dome, which holds nearly 50,000 for football games, Syracuse has allowed opponents to make just 50 of 156 shots from three.
The Gators have never played at the Orange’s home arena and will be faced with shooting in a much more open environment than the O’Connell Center.
“I think overall as a team we had success in the SEC Tournament shooting in a place like that,” Boynton said. “A gym is a gym, we’ve just got to go in there and try to get the win.”
The one Gators guard who has played in the Carrier Dome is redshirt junior Mike Rosario, who spent two seasons at Big East rival Rutgers. In his last trip to Syracuse, N.Y., in 2009, Rosario went 6 of 21 from the field, including 2-for-9 shooting from three.
“This will be a great challenge for us again,” Rosario said.
“Another step forward. I feel like we built from our game that we played against Ohio State and we got better in the things that we needed to get better in. So I feel like we prepared to go out there and play to win the game Friday.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Guard Mike Rosario, a Rutgers transfer, is the only player on UF’s roster with experience in the Carrier Dome. He shot 6 for 21 there in 2009.
