Florida may have left Sunrise with a 78-61 win against Air Force in the Orange Bowl Classic, but coach Billy Donovan still knew the Gators could have performed better on defense.
Prior to facing Air Force, UF’s opponents averaged 16.7 attempts behind the arc. However, Air Force went 9 for 20 from the three-point range.
As No. 13 Florida (9-2) takes on Yale (5-10) Sunday at 5:30 p.m. in New Haven, Conn., the Bulldogs will provide the Gators’ three-point defense with another difficult test.
“With a team like Yale, they have ten players that can shoot threes, so that will be a big thing in the game,” guard Kenny Boynton said. “The three point line is definitely the thing we’ve been focusing on lately.”
Yale averages 18.4 three-point attempts this season and averaged 21.25 in its last four games.
Still, open looks behind the arc isn’t Donovan’s only defensive concern.
“Clearly our defensive numbers are not what they were earlier in the year,” Donovan said. “I’m not looking at it so much in terms of field goal percentage or three-point field goal percentage, but what is our defense efficiency rating.”
Although the Gators rank ninth in the nation with an adjusted 85.2 defense efficiency rating according to KenPom.com, in their last two games they have a defensive efficiency rating of 105.
While Florida ranks fourth in offensive efficiency, Donovan would like to see changes on offense as well. Donovan said that the Gators need to improve their ability to make the right play by finding the open shot more consistently.
“We’re still getting guys down the lane and in the paint, which is where you want them, but they got to make the right read to see who’s open and make those passes,” Donovan said. “When Erik Murphy is open, we can’t miss him. We can’t be blind to that. When Kenny’s open, we can’t miss that. … We just don’t see [those open shots]. It’s not in our scope of visuals. It’s not looking them off, it’s just not finding them.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Erik Murphy (33) and Patric Young (4) try to block a shot from Jared Berggren during Florida's 74-56 win at home against Wisconsin on Nov. 14th. While the No. 13 Gators are 9-2, their defensive efficiency numbers have been down the last two games.
