Vols Teach Gators Tough Lesson About Playing Hard

Vols guard Kevin Punter shoots over the Gators on his way to 26 points in UT's win at Knoxville.

Vols Teach Gators Tough Lesson About Playing Hard

Thursday, January 7, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

Tennessee turned UF's road opener in Southeastern Conference play into a laugher from the jump.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Mike White was six minutes into his postgame postmortem Wednesday night -- a conversation he began by saying he'd try to keep it PG -- and yet the frustration and exasperation were still evident in both his face and voice.

"We've been a team that can't make a free throw and can't make a 3, but we've fought every game and defended at a really high level," the Florida coach said. "I'm just disappointed we didn't do that tonight to give ourselves a chance."

And make no mistake, the Gators had no chance against the Tennessee Volunteers. Not with the effort level they brought to Thompson-Boling Arena. UT jumped on UF from the opening tip, beat the Gators to every loose ball, destroyed them on the glass with a much smaller team, and raced to an 83-69 rout to the delight of 14,387.

Vols guard Kevin Punter hit his first seven field-goal attempts, including a trio of 3-pointers, on his way to 26 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. UT, which had not beaten a high-major opponent this season, shot 47 percent for the game but used 51-percent shooting in the opening period to roll to a 23-point first-half lead that marked UF's largest deficit of the season.

It swelled to 30 in the second half.

"They just wiped us. They destroyed us. They were better in every facet of the game," White said after the worst loss in his first season as UF coach. "They played harder and competed at a higher level. They were tougher, mentally and physically. They got to 90 percent of the loose balls. They did a good job shooting, passing, dribbling, scouting, the whole deal."

It was that thorough. That complete. That one-sided.

"It's disheartening," senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. "We hang our hat on effort. Tonight, it just wasn't there."

When a team can't score, it better defend and it better play hard. Indeed, that had been the calling card for the Gators (9-5, 1-1).

And yet 32 seconds into the game, White took a timeout after Tennessee (8-6, 1-1) scored on its first possession after the Vols grabbed an offensive rebound and eventually turned into a 14-foot jumper from Admiral Schofield (17 points, 8 rebounds).

"Coach saw it from the start," Finney-Smith said. "The guy got a wide-open look off a pin down. That's something we talked about all week."

They talked about it some more in the huddle, but it didn't matter. As White said later, if he'd had 10 timeouts he may have used them all in the first half when the Vols were carving up a UF defense that came in as one of the best in the country.

The Gators were told to make the Volunteers dribble drive and try to take them out of their passing game. Instead, Tennessee just sliced and diced Florida in the halfcourt. When the Volunteers missed shots, too often they rebounded them.

UT's first three baskets were off second-chance opportunities.

"They were more excited to play than us," White said.

The Vols scored 51 in the first half, raced to a 16-0 edge in points off turnovers, won the points-in-paint battle against the bigger Gators 18-6 and had nine fast-break points to UF's zero.

"That was the best 20 minutes we played all year, on both ends of the court," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "We were really aggressive and swarming on the defense end. We kept our offense moving and we really played a terrific half."

The Gators played the anti-half.

Freshman guard KeVaughn Allen led the Gators with 18 points, but 12 came after his team fell behind by 30.

After starting 8-for-17 from the floor and trailing just 22-20 a little over eight minutes in, Florida scored just three field goals the rest of the half -- and went 4-for-28 over the ensuing 20 minutes to fall behind 64-34.

At one point, White sent senior walk-on Lexx Edwards into the game.

"I was just trying to keep it competitive. I was just searching," White said. "When you're down a bunch of points, you're looking for guys who are going to play hard. I'm glad we kept fighting. It could have gotten ugly."

He likely meant "uglier."

The Gators, who shot 34.3 percent for the game, did manage to cut the Vols' lead in half, mostly by pressing and with the help of some late shot-making from freshman guard KeVaughn Allen, who led UF in scoring for the third straight game with 18 points. Finney-Smith had 12 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Sophomore forward Devin Robinson, who left Saturday's win against Georgia with a chest contusion and did not return, came off the bench to score 13 points and grab six rebounds. Junior forward Justin Leon, the junior-college transfer making his second straight start, had a career-high 11 points, with a 3-for-5 night from the arc.

Sophomore center John Egbunu, at 6-foot-11, 255 pounds, dwarfed every Vol on the floor -- UT's biggest player in their main rotation is 6-7 -- yet with every touch he was swarmed by defenders, two and three at a time. He finished with eight points (just 4-for-10 shooting) and seven rebounds.

After Allen, UF got little from the guard tandem of Chris Chiozza and Kasey Hill, who combined to go 1-for-12 from the floor, with nine assists and five turnovers. Hill was 0-for-7 from the floor with a couple point-blank in-and-outs.

For White, though, the most troubling number was one that didn't show up in the box score.

The one that measured want-to.

"We probably wouldn't have won the game anyway. Probably not. Tenneseee was better," he said. "But I'm disappointed in the effort, mental makeup and character we played with. We were a different team than Saturday [against Georgia]; a different team than when we played at [No. 1] Michigan State. It's unacceptable. It's not what we need to be as a program."

And here comes Ben Simmons and LSU, due in Gainesville on Saturday.