This offseason has been a time of major change for coach Mary Wise.
Over the last eight months, Wise has seen a completely different team walk through the doors, altered UF’s playing scheme for the first time in four years and toyed with the NCAA’s new substitution rules.
Wise pushed the restart button over the summer and began from ground zero because of the changes the Gators face, saying it was fair to call this her hardest adjustment period in recent years.
After falling to Illinois in the Elite Eight to end the 2011 season, Florida lost five players to graduation, including two All-Americans. Wise picked up six true freshmen and Taylor Brauneis, a junior transfer setter, to help fill the void left by Kelly Murphy and Kristy Jaeckel.
“You get new players, and with the freshmen, in terms of teaching them the system and all, that took some time,” Wise said.
“That was a big thing, with just how many new faces we have,” Brauneis said. “And I think [Wise] adjusted very well. I feel like she put a lot of faith in us. And I think we played really well as a team and I think we really just have to push ourselves to be the best we can every day in practice, in games and everything.”
Brauneis, who spent her first two years at Louisville, was one of the major influences in the change from a 6-2 system to a 5-1. Rather than have two setters on the court at the same time, Brauneis will carry all of the setting responsibilities.
“It’s going to take a while to gel and mesh and really get a feel for each other,” senior Tangerine Wiggs said. “But we’re doing a great job at practice. I think we’ll do fine running a 5-1.”
Although the transition will be seamless for Brauneis, who has played in a 5-1 offense virtually all her life, the new rotation has made Wise’s workload a little heavier.
“We look at it as, ‘It’s a process,’ and that the players embrace the fact that we’re just trying to get better,” Wise said. “All we’re trying to do is figure how to score points and win.”
Florida’s coach of 21 years is looking forward to the new 15 substitution limit that the NCAA put in place this season. The expansion from 12 to 15 substitutions will allow the Gators to interchange more fresh legs into critical games.
“She’s excited about [the changes],” senior Betsy Smith said. “It’s a lot of new things but it is, at the end of the day, still the game she loves and the game she knows so well. She just knows how to inspire us and just really go out there and compete. That’s her big thing: competing. And she does a great job leading us.”
