Billy Donovan entered Southeastern Conference play for the 16th time in his career with the belief that he had coached worse rebounding teams.
Four years ago, Donovan said his frontcourt consisted of 6-foot-8 Dan Werner at the power forward spot and 6-foot-8 Alex Tyus at center, with 6-foot guard Walter Hodge often used at small forward. That 2008-2009 team nursed its way to the league's worst rebounding average and third-lowest rebounding percentage in the SEC.
“I don’t feel like personnel-wise like it was several years ago, where we were totally overwhelmed and all I could think was, ‘What are we going to do to protect the post here? Because if we are just going to play one-on-one, we will be overwhelmed.’ I don’t feel that way,” Donovan said two days after Florida's SEC-opening loss to Tennessee.
Six games into 2012's conference slate, the team Donovan previously considered his poorest rebounding squad has fresh competition.
The No. 14 Gators (17-4, 5-1 SEC), who haul in a rebound on a league-worst 44.9 percent of their opportunities, also rank last in the conference with just 29.2 rebounds per game. Even the SEC's current last place team, South Carolina (9-11, 1-5), which UF hosts tonight at 9, is able to garner a rebound 50 percent of the time.
“With (Patric) Young and Will Yeguete and (Erik) Murphy, I’m not saying that we’re the best rebounding team in the league, but I feel comfortable, like we can hold our own on the backboard,” Donovan said. “I think we can do that, that the commitment is there to do it.”
While the 6-foot-9 Young, a sophomore center, has been held out of the Gators' starting lineup in each of their SEC games with a right ankle injury, freshman Brad Beal was skeptical that the big man's absence was the main reason for Florida's rebounding woes.
Beal, a 6-foot-3 guard, is leading UF with 102 defensive rebounds this season – 13 more than Young.
“That's not just necessarily because Pat's out,” Beal said. “I'm a three man; I'm the biggest guard, so I have to fight and get rebounds as well. I can't just leave the big guys down there hanging, so I really just try to put my body in place and just try to rebound as best as I can.”
Though Florida has won five straight despite Young's limited minutes, the team has also been out-rebounded four times during that stretch. In each game, the ranked Gators have entered as the favorite, yet have trailed by halftime twice.
A week ago, Ole Miss held a 16-point first-half lead against Florida helped, in turn, by a 17-8 advantage on the boards. The Rebels would go on to out-rebound the Gators 41-23. On Saturday, Mississippi State won the glass by a 34-26 margin.
“We got out-rebounded in both games, but I think we battled,” Murphy said. “We are a smaller team size-wise but you just got to keep fighting in the game and I think we'll be alright.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
