Required to sit out the 2012-2013 season after transferring from Virginia Tech, Dorian Finney-Smith dedicated the off year to adding muscle, shooting at the peak of his jump and completing every task Billy Donovan asked him to do.
But with just more than two weeks until Finney-Smith makes his debut with the Gators, Donovan said the former four-star recruit and Atlantic Coast Conference All-Freshman team selection has his work cut out for him.
“I think he’s just been OK,” Donovan said.
“There’s a lot of expectations on him. I think when you get a chance to see and be around a player every single day, especially for a year, you kind of have an idea (of) strengths and weaknesses and areas that they’ve got to get better in.”
When he originally committed to Virginia Tech, the 6-foot-8 forward was ranked 31st on Rivals.com’s top-150 recruits of 2011.
Even with Finney-Smith, who was coach Seth Greenberg’s highest-rated recruit during his tenure at Virginia Tech, the Hokies failed to make the NCAA Tournament for a fifth straight year.
Greenberg was fired and Finney-Smith decided to find a new home in Gainesville.
“I just wish I’d signed with Florida out of high school,” Finney-Smith told the school’s website in February.
“Can’t do nothing about it now, though, but practice hard and wait for my time to get here.”
Now that Finney-Smith’s time has come, Donovan said the redshirt sophomore is going to feel the pressure right out of the gate because the Gators lost three top scorers from last year’s squad.
Florida has also been hampered by injuries to Will Yeguete and Eli Carter. Scottie Wilbekin will serve an indefinite suspension to begin the season, leaving Finney-Smith with an even heavier burden.
“Now where a lot of those guys are gone, and we’re dealing with some injuries, there’s been more fallen on his plate,” Donovan said.
“And I don’t want to say he has not handled that well, but I do think he’s got to get better.”
Despite making the ACC All-Freshman team for the 2011-2012 season, Finney-Smith averaged just 6.3 points per game while shooting 33 percent from the field.
Donovan said Finney-Smith should not feel pressure to score because that is not who he is as a player.
But Donovan added that the forward will need to prove he can move up and down the court and grab rebounds like he did in his first year.
Finney-Smith finished his lone season in Blacksburg, Va., averaging seven rebounds per game — 10th most in the ACC.
“He has the ability to impact the game with his defense,” Donovan said.
“He has the ability to impact the game with his rebounding. But I think he needs to play with a much better motor. He needs to impact practice a lot more with his motor.”
With non-conference tests in the form of Wisconsin, Florida State, UConn and Kansas coming within the first 10 games of the season, Donovan wants to temper the expectations regarding Finney-Smith.
“The first thing — I’ve dealt with this with (Mike) Rosario and (Vernon) Macklin — when a guy transfers in here and he’s very decorated coming out of high school like those guys have been, what happens is sometimes when people don’t watch a guy play for a year, their legend grows by leaps and bounds of how good they actually are,” Donovan said.
“In fairness to Dorian, I don’t want him to feel undue pressure on himself.”
Freshman on Cousy Award Watch List: Kasey Hill was nominated Tuesday as one of 45 point guards on the watch list for the 2014 Bob Cousy Award, which recognizes the best point guard in the country after the season.
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn.
Dorian Finney-Smith poses for a photo during Florida’s basketball media day.
