I fielded a few e-mails this week wondering why Florida coach Billy Donovan didn’t take more responsibility for the final play of UF’s 70-69 loss against South Carolina.
True, Donovan didn’t immediately blame himself for the late defensive breakdown that resulted in Zam Fredrick’s buzzer-beating layin. But he acknowledged Friday that his players weren’t the only ones who needed to build off the mistake.
“I’m no different from those guys,” Donovan said. “What did I learn from that experience, what
did I learn in that situation? I think I put myself in the same situation with
those guys.”
If faced in that situation again, Donovan said he would consider playing more players back, but explained what was going through his mind in the final 3.3 seconds.
“The thing that I’ve seen happen a lot is it’s a long rebound, the ball comes out and they outlet the ball to somebody and what happens is your whole team backs up and watches the guy shoot because everybody’s afraid to foul,” Donovan said. “What I wanted to do is number one I didn’t want them (South Carolina) to not have to worry about blocking out and I wanted everyone to be matched-up man-on-man so there was no confusion.”
