Two years removed from standing on top of the college basketball world, Florida is finally stepping out of its own shadow.
The Gators will open their season Sunday at 4 p.m. against Stetson at home, underneath the banners commemorating their back-to-back national championships, but the pressure and expectations associated with them are a distant memory at this point.
UF is not ranked in the AP preseason top 25 for the second time in three years — although it received 53 votes in the poll — and was picked to finish fifth in the Southeastern Conference East this season behind Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
“Not a lot of people are expecting stuff from us, so we’ve got nothing to lose,” senior forward Dan Werner said. “We’ve got the underdog mentality to just go out there and play our game.”
The last time the Gators were picked to finish fifth in their division was 2005, when they performed well above the expectations and won their first national title.
Werner, a freshman role player on the 2006-07 team, said the lower expectations have taken some pressure off the young Gators. That hasn’t been the case the last few seasons, however, especially the year after the NCAA Championship.
“I think we were all tight,” added Werner, now the team’s only senior. “Right now, we’re just playing real loose.”
Unlike concerns voiced by UF coach Billy Donovan during the last two years, Werner doesn’t think the team’s more relaxed demeanor is a sign of the players taking things for granted or feeling arrogant without having proven anything on the court.
“As long as we play hard, it’s a good thing that we’re playing loose,” Werner said. “I just think that’s the makeup of our team. Just really laid back and easy going.”
Without one player as the understood go-to guy for direction and guidance, the Gators have developed better chemistry.
Donovan pointed to Werner as a leader by example and attitude in practice, and sophomore Erving Walker as UF’s floor general at point guard, but neither is a particularly vocal presence on the court.
Chandler Parsons has taken on an increased leadership role as well. During the Gators’ two exhibition games, the junior forward was the team’s emotional center, leading huddles and challenging teammates to play better defense at halftime after a lackluster first five minutes against Webber International.
Donovan also pointed to redshirt junior center Vernon Macklin as a vocal leader due to his age and experience, and freshman guard Kenny Boynton echoed that opinion when asked which of his new teammates he looks up to the most.
“I think he’s a great leader in the way he talks to us,” Boynton said. “And he’s probably older than all of us.”
Donovan cautioned that all his players have areas in which they need to improve or become more consistent before they can truly be the team’s leader — a title he is reluctant to bestow on any one person.
“Who’s the catalyst, the focal guy out there? I don’t know if it’s anybody, per se,” Donovan said. “There is respect inside our team for one another, but I think they all try to do different things in different ways.
“If anything, it’s going to be more of a collective group where you have several people basically trying to fill that role.”
