After seven grueling months, the time has finally come for the Florida women’s basketball team.
The 2013-14 season begins tonight at 5:15 in the O’Connell Center.
One would expect this year’s team to look very different from last year’s. Although leading scorer Jaterra Bonds returns for her senior season, the Gators lost second-leading scorer Sydney Moss after she transferred to Thomas More College. Florida also lost their third-leading scorer and defensive leader Jennifer George to graduation.
Coach Amanda Butler hopes the incoming transfers – Antoinette Bannister from UNC and Cassie Peoples from Texas – and star freshman Ronni Williams will not only fill the holes left by those who departed, but improve even more.
With the season finally underway, Florida’s focus shifts from themselves to its opponent: Bethune-Cookman.
“Bethune-Cookman is a team that has a lot of seniors, a lot of athleticism and it a really, really good offensive rebounding team,” Butler said.
“They have a handful of players who can really get to the basket and attack off the bounce. The biggest challenge is that we don’t really have a concrete idea of what they will be this year; what their team’s identity is and what they’ve been working on. We’re just really preparing a scout based off of last year’s information and last year’s statistics and we all know that a year can change things drastically.”
Butler hopes the new, enigmatic offense she’s installed this offseason pays off by tailoring the offense to fit the skill set of her team.
Bonds, her leading scorer, returns. Peoples is known as a scorer with great vision. Bannister made her name as a shooter in high school and was recruited by one of the premier programs in women’s basketball. Williams could arguably be considered the greatest athlete to ever don a jersey for Florida’s women’s basketball team.
But none of that matters if the Gators don’t win.
“We want to make sure we win the ballgame,” Butler said.
“That trumps everything, no question. Aside from that, a level of consistent intensity and carryover from practice the things that we know we do well. We’ll find out a few extra things, I’m sure, that we do well in a game situation that we haven’t been able to see since we haven’t been on the game floor. I’d like to see us handle adversity because it’s going to come. They are going to challenge us in ways we haven’t seen so I really am excited to see how we step up and respond to those challenges, however they may present themselves.”
Follow Gordon Streisand on Twitter @GordonStreisand.
Guard Jaterra Bonds drives to the basket during Florida’s 69-58 win against Arkansas on Feb. 28 in the O'Connell Center.
