Donovan challenges players by taking away perks

GAINESVILLE - Billy Donovan says he doesn't totally blame his players for the Gators' struggles this season, despite the way it seemed from his comments following the Gators' first-round loss in the SEC tournament. But he does have a theory as to why they underachieved this season.

Too much, too soon.

"I think it's very, very easy to become complacent and to lose sight of how good things are around here and to have an attitude of, 'I'm at Florida. This is just what's going to happen,'' Donovan said Monday afternoon. " One of the things that creates a tremendous level of complacency in anybody is after something very, very big happens, it's very easy to have a letdown. It's not these guys' fault. They walked into this. They walked into what happened. They got a facility that the administration has invested a lot in. It's one of the best in the country. They've got a massage therapist to make sure they're okay after games. They've got a private plane that they take to games. The meals that they eat. All those things, these guys came here and went right to the penthouse. When you're on the outside looking in and you walk into something like that, a lot of times you don't know, you just  think, 'I'm here.' And I would say that probably this group, when Oct. 15 started, would have said, 'There's no way, no way, we're not in the NCAA Tournament.' And I just think that's their youthfulness, them not going through it, them not understanding what it's all about.''

To help foster some understanding of just how hard it is to build - and sustain - a championship level program, Donovan is taking a new approach. He's taking away some of their perks.

The locker room is off limits. The beautiful, fancy practice facility is out. The players are wearing thier own workout gear and practicing in the uppper court of the O'Connell Center.

"We don't deserve to be in the penthouse,'' freshman guard Jai Lucas said. "We have done anything to be in the penthouse yet. We're working our way up.''

Donovan said Monday he's continually trying to get the team to understand the commitment it takes to play at the level that's expected at Florida. After Thursday's loss to Alabama, he decided to up the stakes.

"He said we've got to earn what we have,'' freshman guard Nick Calathes said. "We've got everything here: our own practice facility, however million dollar practice facility. we didn't know what other teams did to get there and what the back-to-back national championship guys, how hard they worked and stuff like that. He wants to show us how hard (you have to work) to get to the highest level.''

The Gators will get a chance to show if anything has changed when they host San Diego State in the first round of the NIT Wednesday night.