Billy Donovan hopes his team realizes what it's getting into.
Donovan, who brings an exuberant 5-0 Florida team into Cameron Indoor Stadium tonight to face No. 3 Duke at 7:30 p.m., wasn't too pleased with what he saw in a recent 80-67 victory over Charleston Southern.
"Our basketball team, right now, has got to grow up a little bit," Donovan told reporters after his inexperienced Gators put the game on cruise control early in the second half. "I think it's great we're playing Duke [now], because our younger guys have no clue of what's in store for them."
In his third year at the helm, Donovan has assembled the most talented group of young players in Florida history. With two McDonald's All-Americans among the four freshmen who started on opening day, the Gators have some pretty lofty aspirations.
The craziness of Cameron, where Duke has won 116 of its last 118 non-conference games, might come as a reality check.
"I know I wouldn't want to come in here and play, especially as a freshman," said Duke forward Shane Battier.
Donovan, the prized disciple of Rick Pitino, has never played or coached in Cameron. But he's familiar with the Blue Devils' mystique. As an assistant coach at Kentucky, he watched Christian Laettner bury the Wildcats in the 1992 NCAA East Regional Finals with The Shot.
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"Billy's a hell of a coach, and his staff is hard-working, so the fact that they have success in every aspect of their program is not surprising," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
In Mike Miller, Teddy Dupay, LaDarius Halton and Udonis Haslem, Donovan has his own Fab Four frosh, a recruiting class ranked in the top 10 by every major publication. And he's brought the trademark Pitino style-full-court pressure, heavy three-point bombing and superb fitness-to the Gators.
"They're a very athletic basketball team, very young, very energetic," Battier said. "They're going to come in here and try to press us for 40 minutes."
Miller, widely considered the finest player ever to come out of South Dakota, had Duke on his list of schools before deciding to take his well-rounded game to Florida.
A popular choice to win SEC Freshman of the Year honors, Miller has not disappointed; his 17.7 points per game would rank him second in the conference had he not sprained an ankle and missed the last two games. He returned to practice Monday and is questionable for tonight's game.
The 5-foot-11 Dupay may be the most exciting of the bunch. With a 36-inch vertical leap and a deadly outside shot, Dupay averaged 41.5 points per game as a high-school senior, earning Mr. Basketball honors in the state of Florida.
Dupay, who's averaging 13.0 points and 4.5 assists per contest, sparks the Gators' frenetic run-and-gun style, which resembles Steve Spurrier's attack almost as much as Kentucky's.
"One of the reasons we wanted this early schedule was that we wanted a lot of contrasts," Krzyzewski said. "Since Fresno State we've seen a lot of different styles. Florida will press us and will shoot more threes.
"It's good for us. We'll see that again in the conference."
In the midst of a challenging December schedule, Duke doesn't want a repeat of last year's pre-Christmas lull, which included a disappointing 81-73 loss at the hands of Saturday's opponent, Michigan.
"We handled this stretch very poorly last year," Battier said. "The week before finals, [with] a lot of academic work to be turned in, it really brought our intensity down."
The Blue Devils are still trying to shake the turnover bug, something that Krzyzewski has downplayed since the preseason.
"I understand why there are turnovers," Krzyzewski said. "If I didn't understand why then I would have more concern. Part of turning it over is adjusting to a new style of play and different people [in different roles]."
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