Some observations following Florida’s 75-55 win over Auburn:
– Despite the big win, Florida coach Billy Donovan is concerned about his team’s propensity to draw fouls. The Gators had 20 fouls on Thursday night. Auburn was in the bonus at the 10:47 mark of the second half after sophomore center Chris Walker committed UF’s seventh team foul. A better free-throw shooting team could have done more damage, but Auburn finished the game 65.4 percent (17-26) from the line. “We’re fouling at an astronomical rate,” Donovan said. “It seems like it’s 20 every single night.” Florida is averaging 17.3 fouls per game. Asked for the reason for the fouls, Donovan said: “It’s positioning. It’s laziness. It’s not boxing out.”
– On the subject of fouls, junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith did a nice job bouncing back from first-half foul trouble to score 12 of his team-high 14 points in the first half. Finney-Smith scored just 2 points in 6 minutes in the first half and picked up his second foul at the 11:52 mark, which forced him to sit the final 11:52 of the first half. “My teammates and coaching staff did a good job of telling me to stay engaged, stay into the game,” Finney-Smith said. “Whenever I put my head down, somebody grabbed me and told me to stay into it.”
– It was nice to see Florida junior guard Michael Frazier II rebound the ball well in traffic. Frazier matched a career-high with 9 rebounds and at 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, can impact the game as a bigger, more physical guard. Frazier also had a pretty alley-oop pass to freshman forward Devin Robinson early in the game and hasn’t moped in his recent role off the bench. In three games since losing his starting job to freshman guard Chris Chiozza, Frazier has stayed productive, averaging 11.3 points and 4.7 rebounds.
