Gators clean up on glass

Before the season, Florida coach Billy Donovan challenged the Gators to become a better rebounding team.

More than halfway through Southeastern Conference play, Donovan and the rest of the Gators are beginning to witness the fruits of their labor. Entering Wednesday night's matchup at South Carolina, Florida ranks fourth in the SEC in rebounding margin.

Florida is outrebounding its opponents an average of 3.1 per game. It's a reason why the Gators (17-6, 6-3 SEC) have managed to survive some shaky shooting games to win six of their last seven.

“It's just the will,” Florida junior forward Chandler Parsons said. “It's just the effort. Coach talks about doing the physical things and really you can be undersized and there's always going to be a mismatch in the game. It's really about who wants the ball more and position and working hard.”

But with a re-tooled frontcourt, Florida has created some physical mismatches in recent games. Against Mississippi State, for instance, the 6-foot-9 Parsons had a two-inch height advantage on MSU swingman Ravern Johnson (6-7). The result? Parsons had 12 rebounds, including five offensive boards.

“I'm pretty tall for my position, so I feel like on the offensive boards, to keep me off, if I keep going hard, it's going to be tough,” Parsons said. “At my position, I feel like I should be rebounding like this.”

Overall, Florida had 15 offensive rebounds and outrebounded Mississippi State 46-35 in its 69-62 win over the Bulldogs.

“I think we've gotten better,” Donovan said. “I think our team has gotten physically better.”

Donovan said the addition of 6-foot-10, 240-pound center Vernon Macklin has allowed forward Alex Tyus to slide down the power forward, which has created better physical matchups for both players. Macklin was in foul trouble in the three SEC games in which Florida was outrebounded this season. Florida lost all three games against Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Tennessee.

“Vernon, I think, can rebound the ball better than he has, but at least I think he's a bigger presence and he's got a physical body to keep his man off the backboard,” Donovan said.

Parsons, meanwhile, is averaging 7.8 rebounds per game since replacing senior Dan Werner as a starter seven games ago.

“Chandler has always been a very, very good rebounder, he's done a real good job there from that standpoint,” Donovan said. “And Dan is a really good block-out guy and he blocks out well. I think some of our rebounding margin has been the fact that we actually do a pretty good job offensive rebounding. Our guys really make a strong, concerted effort to get to the glass on the offensive end and we are doing a pretty good blocking out.”

Werner said that Florida is rebounding the ball the best since his freshman season, when the Gators won the second of their back-to-back national titles. Last season, with Tyus starting at center and Werner at power forward, Florida ranked ninth in the SEC in rebounding margin and last in total rebounds.

“Vernon helps so much with that and then of course you have a guy who is 6-9 (Parsons) playing (small forward) so that helps also and he's done a great job going to the boards,” Werner said. “I think we're boxing out better now then we ever have.”

Florida learned some painful lessons on the boards earlier this season. In its 56-53 loss to Richmond, Florida failed to box out on a critical missed free throw late in the game, leading directly to a go-ahead David Gonzalvez 3-pointer. And in a stunning 67-66 home loss to South Alabama, forward De'Andre Hersey scored the go-ahead putback basket with 1.8 seconds left when guards Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker failed to block out their assignments.

“Me and Kenny, we've been doing a lot better job blocking out our man from the guard position,” Walker said. “Vernon, Alex and Chandler, even Dan and everybody, they've been rebounding really well. We just have to keep that going.”

FREE THROWS: Florida will honor the 10-year anniversary of its 1999-2000 Final Four team with a pregame video tribute before Saturday's home game against Xavier. Fans who attend the game also will receive commemorative posters. The Gators reached the NCAA championship game for the first time in school history in 2000 before losing 89-76 to Michigan State.