Florida Gators
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Mississippi State
All-Out Attack Mode in 72-47 Whipping of Bulldogs
Sunday, January 11, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- To suggest Billy Donovan went ballistic at his team's lackadaisical, laissez faire effort during their Saturday afternoon shoot-around would be like saying the state of Florida is somewhat surrounded by water.
Less than five hours before his Gators were set to tip-off their Southeastern Conference home schedule against Mississippi State, his players could not have been any less engaged and sloppy in running through their sets.
This, Donovan ripped into them, was a byproduct of going on the road to South Carolina three days earlier, winning their league opener and feeling pretty good about themselves.
“Basically, he told us we were still an 8-6 team that had won one game and we had nothing figured out,” senior forward Jake Kurtz said. “He reminded us that [Mississippi State] had beaten Florida State and that we had lost to Florida State and if we did not come out ready to play they were going to beat us.”
Is that all?
“Well,” Kurtz added with a smile, “there were a few choice words you can't write mixed in there, too.”
Those words fueled action, as the Gators awakened to throttle the Bulldogs 72-47 in front of 11,966 at the O'Connell Center. Junior guard Eli Carter came off the bench to score 20 points, knocking in four 3-point shots, and junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith continued his high-level play with 16 points, six rebounds and a couple blocked shots. Freshman forward Devin Robinson scored 12, with a pair of assists and steals.
Devin Robinson shoots over Mississippi State's defense. [Photos by Tim Casey and Jim Burgess]
In adding to its school-record streak with a 23rd straight win in conference play, UF (9-6, 2-0) never trailed in the game, had a double-digit lead less than six minutes in and opened a 20-point halftime margin by shooting 62.5 percent from the floor and 4-for-9 from the 3-point line.
This looked the Florida teams of recent seasons, rather than the one that often flailed about in losing six of its first 13 games.
“We put ourselves in a bad situation,” MSU coach Rick Ray said. “I told our team before the game that Florida is one of the best teams in the nation on help defense and I think they're one of the best in the nation as far as sharing the basketball.”
This time out, UF played to that very reputation. The closest the Bulldogs (7-8, 0-2) would close in the second half was within 16 points.
“That's something we've lacked this season,” sophomore point guard Kasey Hill said of his team jumping on an opponent maintaining the pressure. “We've gotten up on teams and let them back in the game. We need to get up and stay up; keep attacking, keep pushing.”
On both ends, which they did this time out.
In the first half alone, UF forced 10 turnovers (and committed just three) and outscored MSU on giveaways 19-0.
For the game, the Gators shot 52.8 percent, but their ball movement was some of the best to date, with a season high-tying 19 assists on 28 field goals.
"We're a pretty unselfish team, whether we're winning or losing,” Carter said. “We were pretty good tonight, but we can be a lot better.” 
Carter (pictured right) will help. For the first time since suffering a foot sprain during a practice the first week of the season, then dealing with a bout of strep throat, Carter appears to be healthy. He showed some flashes in the win at South Carolina, then against the Bulldogs went 6-for-8 from the floor, including four of six from the arc, to go with three assists, a steal and just one turnover.
Those numbers came in handy, considering junior guard and sharp-shooter Michael Frazier II missed practice both Thursday and Friday while dealing with both a respiratory infection and strep throat. Frazier, the team's leading scorer, probably wasn't anywhere near 100 percent, Donovan said, evidence by his 2-for-8 on field goals and 2-for-6 on 3s in 22 minutes.
Finney-Smith, meanwhile, hit seven of his 11 shots and bombed a couple 3-balls in ringing up his eighth straight game in double-figures.
“We shared the ball, guys moved the ball and we didn't just stand around,” Finney-Smith said. “The guards did a good job of getting open and finding each other. We always want to be a high assist team.”
Ask the coach and he'll say they always need to be a energetic, spirited team. That was not the product the Gators put out earlier in the season in losses -- frustrating ones -- against some really, really good teams in games they let slip away. And it wasn't what the Gators put on the O'Dome floor for their shoot-around earlier in the day, as Donovan not-so-subtly reminded them.
Colorfully, too.
“This team cannot play in a comfort zone. We're not talented, deep, physical or strong enough,” Donovan said. “We need to play with an incredible passion and desire and for each other to become a team. If we don't do that, we're below average. Just calling it like it is.”
No one will ever accuse him of doing anything but calling like it is.
