For coaches, players and media members alike, this point in the Florida women’s basketball preseason can be summed up, however out of context, by one of the most famous rants in sports history.
"We in here talkin’ about practice," former Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson said toward the onset of his notorious "practice" rant.
"I mean, listen, we talkin’ about practice. Not a game, not a game, not a game. We talkin’ about practice."
Since got official practices underway nearly a month ago, they have yet to play a game.
Coach Amanda Butler and multiple team members have gone through the usual preseason spiel, but the regular season can’t get here soon enough for the team at this point.
While talking about how other teams at UF have been doing so well as of late, Butler herself seemed a little restless.
"I kinda feel inadequate just talking about practice," she said.
That being said, Butler added that she’s fairly pleased with where the Gators are at this point in the preseason.
"It is very exciting where we’re at right now, the way that we’re progressing, the daily growth, the buy-in level, especially with the new players and the way the returning players are leading them," Butler said.
"Just seeing tremendous indications that it’s going to be a really successful season."
While pleased, Butler also said that the biggest emphasis heading into the regular season is going to be defense.
That makes sense, given the loss of one of last year’s best defenders in Kayla Lewis.
For this team to compete it’ll need to fill that void.
"The thing that we’re spending a lot of time (on is) just trying to generate a high level of awareness, defensive awareness, making sure that in transition we’re a really good transition defense team," Butler said.
"I wouldn’t say it’s a weakness, but it’s an area that we’re really trying to focus on right now."
Senior guard January Miller felt that in the most recent game-style scrimmage the defense was okay, but that it could still use work.
"We did pretty well in our scrimmage but I feel like it doesn’t hurt to work on defense," she said.
"It’s always good to be aware on defense and we have a pretty good team coming up so it’s important."
That "team coming up" is Temple, and the Owls are coming off a season in which they finished with a 20-17 record and made a deep run in the women’s National Invitation Tournament.
Florida struggled early on in road contests last season, going 1-3 in the first four as opposed to 4-0 in the first four games at home.
Playing the first game of the season in Philadelphia might prove to be challenging for Florida, but after both losing and gaining only one player in the offseason, most team members should be used to road contests by now.
One player to watch in particular is junior forward Ronni Williams, who led the team in scoring last year with 10.3 points per game.
Last week at practice, Williams broke the record for the team’s brick house award, which is given to a player for best exemplifying and executing certain values at practice.
"Ronni Williams broke our brick house record for a +21 score," Butler said.
"Normally, whoever wins brick house on a daily basis, their score is somewhere between eight and ten so that was a pretty exceptional day and something to get excited about."
Something else for UF to get excited about is that the start of the regular season is now only ten days away.
Even though the Gators are just "talkin' bout the game', they'll soon take the court for the real competition.
Follow Ethan Bauer on Twitter @ebaueri
January Miller drives into the lane during Florida's 72-58 win against Arkansas on Sunday in the O'Connell Center.
