GAINESVILLE, Fla.--- Keyontae Johnson is the real MVP for Florida basketball.

“We like for him to be [our do everything guy],” Mike White said on Tuesday. “When he’s playing really hard, he’s terrific. He’s as good as anybody on our team. He was really locked in [against Vanderbilt.”

Against Vandy, Johnson led his team with 20 points and six rebounds.

"I don’t think he goes out there and says, ‘This is my time to score.’ He shouldn’t. None of us should be doing that," said White."I thought his teammates got him open looks, he made shots, he’s continuing to progress offensively. He got out in transition a little bit. He’s shooting the ball with confidence - our best driver.

"But the biggest difference or the biggest positive is he just defended at a really high level, communicated at a high level. From our defensive accountability chart that we do after games, it’s as good as he’s been all year.”

Johnson's energy has been infectious all season long, however, the sophomore has taken it to another level in SEC play. He is shooting 45% from three-point range in conference play, 40.4% this season. He is also shooting at a 54% clip from the floor.

“He’s shooting that thing,” White said. “He shot it really, really well late summer, early fall and then shot it pretty well throughout the year."

"When his motor is high, his confidence gets higher," said guard Noah Locke. "He starts to shoot those shots. I mean there are times where he doesn’t shoot it. We all know he can shoot the ball. I know him for a long time, when he was younger, he was a shooter. Thats what he was, he was a good shooter. So I mean I always knew he can shoot the ball and it kind of surprises me when he doesn’t shoot. I mean, seeing when he does shoot it, it’s good."

This offensive improvement was not an overnight change. It was a concerted effort by the Virginia native.

According to Johnson, the staff challenged him to make a thousand shots every day during Summer A.

“I was just basically doing, all the workouts I was doing with Coach Nichols," said Johnson. "I was just translating it to the game, and it’s just helped me out, just getting to my moves that I wanted to do. I feel like the game is slowing down as well, so, I just try not to force anything and let the game come to me.”

Confidence can do wonders for someone's game.

"Confidence, slowing down offensively, and that doesn't mean how fast you're running, but slowing your mind down, calming down your tempo and your mind defensively, that's one of the things we talk to our guys a lot about,” White explained. “We want guys playing at a 10/10 defensively and on the glass and offensively everyone's got a bit of a different level hype meter. His level of speed and his mind with the ball in his hands has slowed down a little bit, the game has slowed for him a little bit, playing more under control, gaining confidence while doing so, playing off of two feet in the paint, had some good shot fakes and pivots, he's improved as a passer as well and I think his teammates have also gained confidence in him and playing through him."

"I always knew he had it in him," said Locke. "I mean, a big thing with him is staying consistent with his motor. When he has a high motor he plays very well. When we were playing Vanderbilt I can just tell, and just to seeing that he was playing with a high motor and he was playing very well."

Johnson has earned his teammates' confidence offensively and defensively. White and company are now comfortable enough to have him defend guards, point guards and forwards.

“He guards one through four regularly,” White said. “That’s what he’s done for a year-and-a-half. I’m not telling (Georgia Coach) Tom (Crean) anything that he doesn’t know. We switch one through four ball screens and we see a lot of it. Georgia switches one through five ball screens because they can athletically. (Keyontae) has the ability to defend at a pretty high level one through four. When he’s locked in and playing pretty hard, he’s arguably our best defender.”

Johnson was the last of the sophomores to start a game early last year, however, he has now become an instrumental part of this team's success.

"I just try to do what the coaches ask," he said.