Powerhouse Programs Collide as Florida Hosts Arizona (7 p.m., ESPN)
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 | Men's Basketball
By Chris Harry
GatorZone.com Contributing Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Jeremy Foley used to hear all the reasons and/or excuses why the University of Florida could not achieve sustained success with basketball.
Football school. Luke-warm fan interest. No hardwood tradition. Indoor game in outdoor state. Not a southern sport. The specter of Kentucky. Blah. Blah. And blah.
UF's director of athletics may have listened to it, but he never believed it. That's because in the back of his mind there was one image that trumped all the naysayers who said basketball could never be big-time at Florida.
Arizona.
In 1983, Lute Olson left Iowa -- with its five straight NCAA berths, including a Final Four appearance in '80 -- for the wasteland that was Wildcats basketball in Tucson, home to one of the nation's worst basketball programs.
“My recollection of Arizona basketball before Lute Olson is I don't really have one,” Foley said Tuesday. “But in comes a guy with a great reputation, takes over a program with great potential, with all the resources, at a big-time college in a beautiful city in beautiful state ... and he does something that had never been done before. He put Arizona basketball on the map.”
Sound familiar?
The foundations of the Arizona and Florida programs won't be the only likeness between the two when the Wildcats (6-2) and 12th-ranked Gators (5-2) clash in a Wednesday night shootout at the O'Connell Center. The coaches, UF's Billy Donovan and UA's Sean Miller, are both former standout Big East point guards and the perimeter-heavy personnel of each squad may at times appear like mirror images for the sell-out crowd and ESPN national audience.
And then there's the tradition, albeit relatively new found for both. Not to mention wildly successful.
“I think there are a lot of similarities in a lot of aspects,” Donovan said.
The only one Donovan will care about, though, is the one playing out on the O-Dome floor.
A visit from the Wildcats, with their 26 NCAA Tournament berths (including the '97 national title) over the last 27 years, will make for a stellar showcase on the home court -- the Gators will reciprocate with a trip to Tucson next season -- but also provides Florida a great bounce-back challenge following Friday night's prime-time loss at No. 4 Syracuse. No, Arizona is not ranked at the moment, but the Wildcats will be soon enough and in the interim they'll bring to town as skilled and athletic a lineup as any UF opponent this season this side of Lexington, Ky.
“Playing different kind of teams is good,” sophomore forward Will Yeguete said. “Playing good teams is good.”
Beating them is ever better.
The Gators aren't exactly thumping their chests over wins versus Jackson State, North Florida, Wright State, Jacksonville and Stetson. No team, however, has taken true road trips to the likes of Ohio State and Syracuse (Nos. 2 and 3 in both polls this week) this season. UF had nice stretches and were in both games, including a rally from nine down at the Carrier Dome to take a 3-point lead midway through the second half.
Ultimately, turnovers and some poor decisions in the half-court were Florida's undoing against the big boys.
“We've played two really good teams and I think we got our feet wet with them,” senior point guard Erving Walker said. “It's a totally different level of competition playing against Ohio State or Syracuse on the road, as opposed to a Stetson -- no disrespect to Stetson. It's just a different atmosphere. We'll adjust well now.”
The Gators want to play a complete game against an elite opponent.
And win.
“Syracuse did present some of the same challenges that we're going to have to face against Arizona in the fact that they can put it down on the floor and create plays,” Donovan said of a team that will roll out a four-guard lineup eerily analogous to his own. “Rebounding-wise, they're really good and they do it a different way than Syracuse. Syracuse does it with length and size. These guys do it with speed and quickness.”
Junior forward Solomon Hill is the Wildcats' swingman, who will start off at the small forward spot, but eventually drop to the power forward position when Miller sends in his fourth guard, talent freshman Nick Johnson. Arizona doesn't score like Florida (68 points per game vs. UF's 87.6), but the Wildcats flash on the perimeter and hold opponents to 35.9 percent from 3-point range, an area where the Gators (41.8 percent) look to make defenses pay.
First order of business: take care of the ball.
The Gators had 20 turnovers against Syracuse, including 10 in the second half when the Orangemen only had five.
“A turnover [when] up 26 clearly doesn't have the magnitude of a turnover with 3:30 in the game. Or giving up an offensive rebound up 25 doesn't have the same magnitude as when the game is tied with 2 1/2 minutes go to,” Donovan said. “When you're playing good teams, the margin for error sort of plays itself out at the end of the game.”
Well, here comes another good team. One of the best in the country over the last quarter-century, in fact.
The kind of program few imagined Florida could be.
“My thing is, I always wanted to establish something that endures,” Donovan said. “I have a passion for that.”
And the guy who hired him had a vision for the same thing.
“Like I said, I don't know what Arizona was like before Lute, but I know what it was like after Lute,” Foley said. “With us? I certainly know what it was like before Billy -- and I know what's it been like after Billy.”
GATORS GAMEBOX
Arizona at No. 12 Florida
Tip-off: 7 p.m. (O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.)
Records: Arizona 6-2, Florida 5-2
TV: ESPN (w/Mark Jones and Jimmy Dykes)
Radio: Gator Radio Network (w/Mick Hubert and Mark Wise) -- Click here for affiliates) / Sirius 220/XM 199
Game notes: Florida notes; Arizona notes
Need to know: The Wildcats and Gators are meeting for just the third time, with the series locked 1-1 in a pair of games played on neutral courts. When they last played, UF defeated UA 78-77 when backup center Bonell Colas made a layup (his only points of the game) off an inbounds pass with 7.3 seconds left in the 2003 MassMutual Classic at Springfield, Mass. The Wildcats defeated the Gators 75-71 in the title game of the 2001 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Madison Square Garden. ... Arizona is the first Pac-12 team to play in Gainesville. Florida is 10-9 all-time vs teams from the Pac-12, including seven straight wins and a 7-2 mark under Coach Billy Donovan. ... UF out-rebounded and hit at least 10 3-point shots in its first games, but those streaks came to an end in the 82-78 loss Friday at No. 4 Syracuse. ... The Gators have five players averaging in double-figures, led by G Kenny Boynton (19 ppg, 47.3 from 3) and senior PG Erving Walker (14.1 ppg, 5.3 apg), and are hitting 48.4 percent from the floor. ... Junior F Erik Murphy (10 ppg, 53.8 percent from floor, 57.1 percent from 3), who started the the first four games of the season, will return to action after missing three games with a bruised knee. ... The Gators need more of everything from PF Patric Young (9.6 ppg, 7.3 rpg), who got in early foul trouble vs. Syracuse. His size (6-9) and strength (247 pounds) will come in handy when the Wildcats go small. ... Arizona has three starters averaging in double-figures, topped by 6-6 F and reigning conference player of the week Solomon Hill (12.4 ppg, 7.8 rpg), G Kyle Fogg (11 ppg) and F Jesse Perry (10.5 ppg, 9.1 rpg). Freshman PG Nick Johnson (10.8 ppg), nephew of the late Boston Celtics star Dennis Johnson, will come off the bench and stay off (3rd on team in minutes). ... Freshman G Josiah Turner (7.1 ppg), the No. 2-rated point guard prospect in the nation last season, was suspended for the game Tuesday, Coach Sean Miller announced. ... Miller in his third season at Arizona, where he is 52-25, including a 30-8 mark last year when he guided the Wildcats to the Elite Eight, including an upset of No. 1 overall seed Duke. Miller went 120-47 in five seasons at Xavier before that.
