Kasey Hill’s debut with the Gators got off to an erratic start Friday night in the O’Connell Center.
With 11:23 remaining in the first half, the freshman point guard dribbled the ball up the floor and slowly studied his options in the halfcourt.
To his right, Hill saw Casey Prather on the wing.
Then, Hill hesitated.
After a few seconds of contemplation, Hill attempted to dish the ball to Prather, but Florida Southern guard Dominic Lane tipped and stole the errant pass.
Fewer than three minutes later, Hill made another mental error.
After Lane made a three pointer to cut UF’s lead to 28-23, Hill raced through the Moccasins’ full-court press and attempted a pass to DeVon Walker.
But the ball sailed past Walker’s hands and bounced by a pack of photographers on the baseline.
“[Coach Billy Donovan told me to] stop being so loose with the ball, stuff like that,” Hill said.
“Don’t be careless. Take every possession like it’s your last possession.”
Despite committing two early turnovers and missing three of his first five shots, Hill calmed down and went on a tear to close out the first half.
The Eustis native made his next four field-goal attempts to end the half with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
Hill missed all four of his shots in the second half but finished No. 10 Florida’s 110-88 exhibition win against Florida Southern with 17 points — the third-best mark on the team.
The 6-foot-1 McDonald’s All-American also recorded three assists against three turnovers in 26 minutes of action as Florida’s starting point guard.
Five of Hill’s six successful field goals were layups, with three coming in transition.
Hill said he did well attacking in transition and getting open shots for his teammates, but admitted the pace of the college game is far different than what he experienced at Montverde Academy last year.
“Toughest part, how fast the ball moves,” Hill said. “I’m not really used to that.”
High expectations follow Hill as he enters Florida’s regular-season opener against North Florida on Friday.
The freshman was added Monday to the watch list for the Wayman Tisdale Award, which is given to the top freshman in the country at the end of the season.
With guard Scottie Wilbekin out for Friday’s opener due to an indefinite suspension, Hill will continue to assume the starting point guard duties.
Donovan admits he needs to do a better job of monitoring Hill’s playing time while Wilbekin is out.
“Because we don’t have Scottie, he probably plays too many extended minutes,” Donovan said. “I probably should have done a better job of getting him out of the game sooner.
“I’m probably going to need to learn him, in terms of what his body language looks like, when he really starts to get tired. But I still think the tempo, the pace he needs to play with, he needs to play with that level of intensity all the time.”
But if Hill proved anything to the Florida coaching staff Friday night, he showed he will not let early mistakes rattle him.
“For a freshman to come in and basically start his first game and do what he did, especially in the first half, I thought he played very well,” Donovan said.
Follow Landon Watnick on Twitter @LandonWatnick.
Kasey Hill drives down the lane during Florida’s 110-88 victory against Florida Southern during an exhibition game Friday in the O’Connell Center. The freshman scored 17 points in the game.
