The shorthanded Gators survived Friday, but looked nothing like a national championship contender.
No. 10 Florida shook off a shooting slump to roll past North Florida 77-69 at the O’Connell Center in its season opener. Although UF was missing three regular players, coach Billy Donovan was irritated by his team’s pouty demeanor and sluggish defense.
“We are light years away from even being a remotely good defensive team right now and light years away from being a ranked team,” he said.
The Gators seemed ready to race away with a blowout victory and led 33-15 with five minutes left in the first half. However, North Florida closed on an 11-0 run and cut the deficit to four early in the second half. The Ospreys were within 10 points for most of the final six minutes.
Last season, when Florida’s defense was No. 1 among all major-conference teams in fewest points allowed, the team built a reputation for taking big leads and expanding them. Donovan did not see that fire from the Gators on Friday and criticized them for having an “everything’s supposed to go my way, and when it doesn’t, I get deflated” attitude.
“I was really disappointed in our team — about as disappointed as I’ve been,” he said. “The first 15 or 16 minutes they did a really good job, but to get a 19-point lead and go into the half up six? A button’s gotta turn on.
“We break momentum for ourselves. We throw outlet passes up the sideline that get picked off when we just played defense for 30 seconds. Not knowing where the three-point shooters are. Taking a shot you shouldn’t take.”
North Florida made 5 of 11 3-pointers and hit the Gators with 38 points in the second half. They gave up that many in the second half just twice last season.
Florida would have been at severe risk of an upset if not for forward Casey Prather injecting life into the team with a career-high 28 points on 10-for-15 shooting. Prather, a senior whose previous high was 12 points, made his fifth career start and presented a strong case to stay in the lineup.
Michael Frazier gave Florida a gutsy performance in his first game back since a battle with mononucleosis. The staff determined beforehand that he would likely play eight minutes in order to get a feel for the pace of the game, but he went 24 and scored 19 points with nine rebounds.
“Coach did a good job of subbing me out when I needed a blow,” said Frazier, who lost 12 pounds due to the illness. “I’m not 100 percent yet, so it’s definitely going to take a little more time, but I felt good.”
Kasey Hill, an All-America recruit, scored 15 points and had four assists in his debut.
Patric Young, a preseason all-SEC selection by the conference’s coaches, had two points, two rebounds and two blocked shots in 20 minutes.
The Gators played without potential starters Scottie Wilbekin and Dorian Finney-Smith, as well as reserve Damontre Harris. All three were suspended for a violation of team rules and will sit out Tuesday’s game at No. 20 Wisconsin. Donovan declined to say how long they will be out.
That means help is not coming any time soon for the group that struggled in the opener, and there will be little margin once the competition gets tougher.
“My concern right now is on the defensive end,” Donovan said. “No disrespect to North Florida, but we’re gonna play against higher-level people come Tuesday. We’ve got a long, long, long way to go.”
