Billy Donovan has mixed up his team’s practice routine quite a bit in the last week.
Although he made one particular change to fix a season-long flaw, most of the adjustments have come out of necessity.
With Florida battling injuries and illnesses, Donovan was lucky if he could get eight players on the practice court last week.
“When you’re down a player or two, sometimes we really don’t have enough,” Donovan said. “Sometimes we get caught doing three-on-three stuff. Sometimes we do four-on-four.
“We just try to deal with, coaching-wise, the hand that we’re dealt.”
The lack of able-bodied players in practice hasn’t made game planning any easier for Donovan, his staff or his team.
With Adam Allen likely out for the season after suffering another left knee injury and Kenny Kadji out indefinitely with a herniated disc, any other injuries to key players have proven more costly this season than they would have in the past.
So when senior forward Dan Werner came down with the flu last week, it affected more than just UF’s starting lineup Saturday.
Junior forward Chandler Parsons, who started the game in Werner’s spot, was forced to practice at power forward even though he plays almost exclusively on the perimeter.
“The difficulty in doing that is that Chandler in games is not playing at the power forward spot,” Donovan said. “Sometimes in practice, we’re getting caught playing guys in positions they’re not even playing in games.”
With fewer available players, the Gators’ reserves have had to take on increased roles in practice. Walk-on guard Kyle McClanahan was asked to mimic LSU guard Bo Spencer in practice last week, and sophomore guard Ray Shipman had to impersonate LSU forward Tasmin Mitchell.
The 6-foot-5, 210-pound Shipman wasn’t exactly the ideal candidate to mimic the 6-foot-7, 245-pound Mitchell, who scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds against UF on Saturday.
“Not to take nothing away from them, but they’re nowhere near those type of guys,” sophomore point guard Erving Walker said. “Ray is good, but he’s not Tasmin Mitchell – he’s a guard trying to be a forward.”
Freshman guard Kenny Boynton said the biggest difference for the players has been the switch from five-on-five to four-on-four scrimmages, a change that has made practices a little more tiring for those capable of taking the floor.
Possibly the most important change made in practices, though, was Donovan’s decision to break up Friday’s practice with a short film session in between drills and scrimmages.
The move simulated the break the team would have at halftime, after which UF has come out slow for most of the season.
The move paid off Saturday, as the Gators started off the second half with a 23-6 run that put the game all but out of reach with 12:53 remaining.
“I’m gonna try to keep doing that,” Donovan said. “I’m not gonna say we’ll do it every day, but it’s something we’ll try to continue.”
At least a few of Donovan’s players hope to see it become a more common occurrence, especially after seeing how effective it proved to be.
“I don’t have a problem doing it,” Parsons said. “We’re 1-0 doing it, so why not?”
