Justin Leon provides pressure on Auburn during Saturday night's boat-race win.
Hoops Hodgepodge: Auburn 'Takeaway,' Matt McCall, 95 Points, Tweets, etc.
Sunday, January 24, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Three follow-up observations from Florida's 95-63 win Saturday night over Auburn that upped the Gators to 13-6 on the season and 5-2 in the Southeastern Conference:
John Egbunu gets a hand Saturday night from UF trainer David Werner.1) Coach Mike White's teams at Louisiana Tech had a reputation for pressing, causing havoc on defense, forcing tempo and taking advantage of numbers with transition 3s. We saw all that against the Tigers, as White opened the game in the press and stayed in it for the first 18 possessions -- enough to jump to a huge lead -- and then called it off after Auburn got a couple open 3s and an offensive rebound for a stickback. The score was 40-16 when UF backed out. The objective had been achieved. Florida had a big lead and was forcing the ball out of the hands of the dangerous Kareem Canty. The Gators are a very good defensive team. Statistically, the No. 2 scoring defense and No. 4 field-goal percentage defense. But they are not immune to being broken down by good players. White is getting a feel for when to utilize full-court pressure, but he also has figured out the Gators are at their best when operating through Dorian Finney-Smith and John Egbunuinside. That definitely doesn't mean they won't press, as evidenced by Saturday, especially when UF is shooting like it did against the Tigers. Then again, the Gators likely won't shoot many games like they did against the Tigers.
2) Free throws. What in the world? To review: 20 of 24. That's 83.3 percent. Backup point guard Kasey Hill and reserve center Kevarrius Hayes, who came into the game a combined 47-for-98 -- that's 47.9 percent -- together went 5-for-5. Both these guys, as well as Egbunu (.554), forward Justin Leon (.286) and the rest of the team, put a lot of extra time into practicing free throws. I know you've heard/read it all before, but it's true. All they can do is keep working on them and believing the attention to detail will pay off. For one game, it did. The Gators entered the game at 58.7 percent from the line in SEC play. They exited at 61.8. Now, let's see if they can inch those percentages up in really close games. Hey, they've done it from the 3-point line. UF came into the SEC season at 27.4 percent from deep and have now made 39.5 versus the league.
3) Speaking of Hayes, he had one of his better and most active games in a while. He went for six points and six rebounds in 16 minutes. He also made a very high-IQ play early in the game. With the shot clock ticking down -- and the Rowdy Reptiles counting for the home team -- Hayes got the ball in the low post with his back to the basket with about two seconds left on the possession. With the Auburn defense collapsing, Hayes threw up what amounted to a blind underhanded bank shot; again, his back (and face) to the basket. The ball hit the rim, resetting the clock, and Finney-Smith was there to clean it up with a follow dunk. I really like this kid. He's got a long way to go with his offensive skills set (and especially when it comes to free throws), but as I've said here before: You can teach him to shoot; you can't teach the kind of effort he brings every day.
GATOR ALUM OF THE WEEK Matt McCall The Billy Donovan coaching tree sprouted a branch last offseason when Matt McCall, a UF assistant the previous four years, was hired by Tennessee-Chattanooga. A Florida grad, a former Gators manager and an assistant at Florida Atlantic, McCall joined the UF staff in 2011 (replacing Richard Pitino) and the last few seasons had chances to chase some other jobs. He waited for the right one.
Good move.
McCall inherited a pretty good group at UTC and put his stamp on the Moccasins by shocking Georgia on the road in the season opener, then pulling off upsets of Illinois and Dayton, also on the road. The Mocs, whose game Saturday at Virginia Military was postponed by the East Coast blizzard, stand at 17-3 overall and 6-1 in the Southern Conference, but their RPI is a pretty solid 64. That puts them firmly on the bubble -- maybe on the outside of it -- meaning UTC likely has to win its league tournament to get to the NCAA Tournament.
With that assumption, ESPN's "Bracketology" has Tennessee-Chattanooga as a 13-seed in the Midwest Region matched against fourth-seeded Louisville.
The Mocs would be a dangerous first-round foe.
Oh, by the way, the coaches' office in Chattanooga is packed with former Gators and those with UF ties, starting with video coordinator -- you may have heard of him -- Jake Kurtz (former walk-on player), director of basketball operations Eddie Shannon (standout point guard in the '90s),assistant coach Pete Gash (video coordinator '14-15)and strength/conditioning coordinator Colin Crane (assistant to Preston Greene for two years).
Florida's big-time offensive output Saturday night marked just the 11th time since the SEC first expanded for the 1991-92 season the Gators hit 95 points in an SEC game -- and only the ninth time in regulation. Not surprisingly, UF has won all 11 of those games, including the one in the video below (See Walker, Erving). Anyone remember?
DATE
OPPONENT
SCORE
1-26-94
at Georgia
W 100-78
3-4-99
vs LSU (SEC Tournament)
W 97-75
1-1-02
at Tennessee
W 104-100 (OT)
1-12-02
at Vanderbilt
W 95-85
1-16-02
LSU
W 102-70
1-10-04
Tennessee
W 95-57
2-4-06
Kentucky
W 95-80
2-3-09
South Carolina
W 97-93
1-25-11
at Georgia
W 104-91 (2OT)
2-18-12
at Arkansas
W 98-68
1-23-63
Auburn
W 95-63
ASK @GatorsChris
Hey @GatorsChris maybe you've already answered: what's the update on A. Murphy if any? Thanks.
It's complicated. Basically, Murphy's plantar fasciitis has become chronic to the point where he either can't practice or shouldn't practice. It's a shame that this would happen to a player like Murphy, who works so hard and was coming off a solid summer playing with the Finnish national team, in his fifth-year senior season. If Murphy misses the remainder of the season, the Gators could petition for a medical hardship waiver, but that is getting way ahead of ourselves.
FREE THROWS
UF will go for a fourth straight SEC win Tuesday night at Vanderbilt. The Gators haven't won four in a row in the league since going 21-0 vs the conference during the Final Four of 2014. ... How 'bout this stat: With Saturday's win, White tied Billy Donovan for the most victories by a Florida coach in his first season (13 in 1996-97) since John Lotz won 15 in 1973-74. I'm guessing White will surpass Lotz, too. ... With eight assists against the Tigers, Chiozza's assist-to-turnover ratio in SEC play is now 48-to-13 and 63-to-14 since he took over the starting role 11 games ago. ... Finney-Smith is 35 points shy of becoming the 51st player in UF history to score 1,000 points in a UF uniform. ... For the first time since Feb. 18, 2012, when the Gators went to Arkansas and handed the Razorbacks their worst home loss in Bud Walton Arena history, UF scored 95 points and shot at 56.9 percent from the floor.
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