Last season didn’t go how Mike Rosario planned.
After sitting out 2010-11 because of transfer rules, the redshirt senior missed a significant portion of last season due to injury. Between a strained back, pain in his leg and a hip pointer, Rosario missed six games and 25 practices.
Coach Billy Donovan questioned Rosario’s toughness at UF’s media day on Wednesday.
“In athletics you get measured more on what you do on days that you don’t feel well than on the days you do feel well,” he said. “We’re never going to put any of our guys in jeopardy to get hurt, but if you get a little tendinitis, you’re a little sore, you’ve got a thigh bruise, you have to work through that and push through that. “Mike had a hip pointer and was out for 10 days. I mean … that is just mind-boggling. Ten days for a hip pointer? My daughter could work through that.”
During Rosario’s two seasons at Rutgers in 2008-10, he averaged 33.1 minutes per game. However, in his first year at Florida, Rosario tallied only 14.4 minutes per game.
Before Rosario missed his first game as a Gator against Mississippi Valley State on Dec. 19, he scored an average of 9.4 points per game. He averaged only 5.3 points per game the rest of the season.
“[Rosario] needs to understand that the responsibility he has is school, class on-time, doing the things he knows he’s supposed to do, then on the court — practicing and playing the right way,” Donovan said. “If he does those things then he puts me in a position to allow me to play him more as a coach and he gets out of it what he wants to get out of it.”
Despite last year’s struggles, Donovan is starting to see a change in Rosario. Donovan said Rosario’s last three weeks have been his best since becoming a Gator, and he’s made a commitment to improving his work ethic, which developed partly because of his time playing for the Puerto Rican National Team during the summer.
“The one thing that was very humbling for him was two-fold: one, not getting a chance to play a lot and our team still able to have some significant success last year,” Donovan said, “and then also playing on the Puerto Rican National Team and having to back up two NBA players and play five minutes a game.”
Donovan hopes Rosario will put his previous setbacks behind him, which should lead to more time on the court. Rosario is ready to work to get those extra minutes.
“Whatever coach asks me to do to help my team in any kind of way, I’m willing to do,” Rosario said. “I’m just looking forward to being a consistent guy and just going out there and working hard.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Redshirt senior guard Mike Rosario poses during Florida’s media day on Wednesday. Rosario struggled with injuries and inconsistency in 2011-12, averaging only 14.4 minutes per game.
