Forward Mitchell hopes to follow In Noah's footsteps
He may not have the crazy curls, lanky body or scrappy style of play, but Jonathan Mitchell is determined to become UF's next Joakim Noah.
"Coach (Billy Donovan) hit me with the Joakim Noah story," Mitchell said. "We played the same kind of minutes, and he told me to just keep working hard, and for some reason I just took it to the heart and worked harder every day."
Similar to the former Gators and current Chicago Bulls forward, Mitchell suffered through an unproductive first year. Mitchell averaged just 1.2 points in only 6.2 minutes per game. Joakim Noah contributed 3.5 points in 9.4 minutes in the 2004-05 season.
In each of their first years, Joakim Noah and Mitchell both failed to start a game or play more than two minutes total in the NCAA tournament.
This is where the similarities end. Mitchell now has a mountain to climb if he ever wishes to cast a shadow as large as Joakim Noah's.
At this point, Joakim Noah's legacy is cemented in the history books: a two-time national champion, MVP of the Final Four and a top-10 NBA Draft selection.
Mitchell is aware that the task ahead will be difficult but said he is doing all he can to reach his goals.
"This summer I just took everything and worked hard everyday," he said. "Conditioning, dribbling, shooting, passing. I'm trying to be the best player and the most complete player that I can be. It was a real intense summer for me this year."
Whether or not Mitchell will ever reach that point is hard to determine, but his talent is obvious. Mitchell averaged 19.5 points and 7.6 rebounds in his senior season at Mount Vernon High (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) en route to being named New York's Mr. Basketball.
While in high school, Mitchell looked up to another Chicago Bulls player — Ben Gordon. Gordon, a former University of Connecticut standout and national champion with the Huskies, also attended Mount Vernon High. Mitchell broke Gordon's all-time school scoring record during his senior season.
While Mitchell's ability is there, Donovan still doesn't seem completely sold on the sophomore.
"I think that Jonathan Mitchell has worked hard, but there's also an internal competitiveness that I haven't seen out of [the sophomore class] yet," he said. "It's a different thing when you talk about a guy's will to win and when you go into a game to impact winning. I feel like guys in the past that we had on teams impacted winning."
Donovan said Mitchell and his fellow sophomores Dan Werner and Marreese Speights have been up and down so far in practice. Donovan is looking for consistency from his returning players, just four on a roster of 11.
"I really haven't seen a different mind set, which for me is disappointing," Donovan said. "I just thought that mentally, in terms of the competitiveness, fatigue and fighting through being tired, those guys have been really inconsistent. No question the sophomore class has to be consistent everyday for us, and they haven't been up to this point."
With seven freshmen on the roster, Mitchell now assumes a leadership role — something that might take some getting used to.
"I'm just trying to do what I can, help out in any way," he said. "I try to teach the new guys what I know - to stress the little things, rebound and do what you have to do get the job done."
Heading into the new season, Mitchell will feature a new look on the court. The former No. 23 has switched his number to 0, a change that means a lot to the sophomore.
"I changed my number to No. 0 this year because I feel kind of like the Gilbert Arenas story," he said. "I could kind of relate to it. I feel like the impossible is nothing. I feel like last year I didn't play too much, and I'm going to prove people wrong now."
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