UF-UConn a Rematch in Name Only
Friday, January 2, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- After yet another tough loss was handed to a program not accustomed to losing so early and so often, the coach talked of the struggles and his players' need to battle through.
“I love these guys, I love how they work. We've got to play through the ups and downs with this team,” he said. “Hopefully, everybody's looking in the mirror. I'll be looking in the mirror, figuring out different things we need to do, but at the end of the day we've got to execute.”
And now that coach and team have another game against another difficult, marquee opponent, as together they try to right themselves in time to build momentum for the conference season.
Billy Donovan certainly can relate to that guy.
No, the above quotes did not come from the mouth of the Florida coach, but rather from Connecticut's Kevin Ollie, whose team last year handed Donovan two of the three losses during UF's magical run through the regular season and up to the Final Four. Florida's incredible, school-record 30-game winning streak last season was bracketed by the Huskies' buzzer-beating win on their home court on Dec. 2, 2013 and by the sound defeat of the nation's No. 1-ranked team in the NCAA semifinals on April 5, 2014 at Arlington, Texas.
UConn coach Kevin Ollie (left) and UF coach Billy Donovan meet with the media in advance of their Final Four showdown in North Texas last April. [Photos by Tim Casey]
Now, nine months later, UF (7-5) and UConn (6-5) meet again, but under completely different circumstances. Both desperately need Saturday's 2 p.m. game at the O'Connell Center, be it for confidence, for pride, for RPI. Heck, just to get a win over an opponent with a little punch.
For the Gators, this one can't be about what happened last year. That ship left the dock long ago.
“Whatever words you want to use -- revenge, playback, whatever -- those [previous] games were their own specific, individual competitive games,” Donovan said. “The one at Connecticut and then the one in the Final Four, both teams had a chance to line up and play in those games and they ended up on top in both of them. It's two totally different teams, two totally different sets of guys.”
Mixed into both lineups are a handful of players that were on the floor at Gampel Pavilion and AT&T Stadium last season, but all resemblances stop there.
Those Gators, of course, were led by a quartet of seniors -- Patric Young, Scottie Wilbekin, Casey Prather and Will Yeguete -- that won more games than any foursome in Florida history. They were tight, connected, cohesive and knew how to play the Donovan way on both ends.
And as good as that group was, it met its match in UConn. Twice.
The 2013-14 Huskies had first-team All-America guard Shabazz Napier, a fearless, shot-making assassin, plus 6-foot-9 forward DeAndre Daniels, whose tip-out in the first game landed in Napier's hands for the horn-beating dagger and who later raked the Gators for 20 points and 10 rebounds in the Final Four.
UF junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who played 27 minutes of that humbling, buzzkill 63-53 defeat in North Texas, remembered leaving both losses to UConn thinking the Huskies played harder than the Gators. But he hasn't thought much about either game since.
“I felt bad for our older guys,” he said. “But it's over with. This is a new game and next one on the schedule.”
Patric Young consoles Michael Frazier II as last season's loss to UConn at the Final Four winds down.
The last one of the Gators' schedule was no bargain, either. UF's 65-63 loss at Florida State on Tuesday was as maddening an outcome as any this season (maybe in some time), considering the Gators fought relentlessly to come back and tie the game with eight seconds left, only to lose at the horn when a desperation Seminoles shot took a fluky bounce off the hands of Florida forward Jake Kurtz and spun into the goal.
The very next morning, the Gators were back at work and Donovan couldn't help but appreciate the way Kurtz showed up and went about his business. Maybe, hopefully, Kurtz's actions sent a message through the locker room.
“He has an unbelievable opportunity to set an example of what mental toughness is, what resiliency is, perseverance is,” Donovan said. “He didn't come in here pouting and feeling sorry for himself. 'Woe is me, I lost the game. I feel terrible. I can't pick myself up off the mat, so how do you expect me to practice?' There was none of that. Sometimes, in our team, we get too much of that. There's not a mental toughness. That's not something you are innately born with. It's something that is developed over time and he is a great example for our guys how to overcome something like that.”
If any of Kurtz's mental toughness is to rub off on his teammates, this would be a fine time to spread the wealth. UConn may be struggling to win games, but the calling card of that program -- no different under Ollie, a former Huskies player, than it was for years with Hall-of-Famer Jim Calhoun -- is its pit bull mentality.
As good as Wilbekin was for the Gators as a senior, the 2014 SEC Player of the Year was absolutely eaten alive by UConn's backcourt. And so was Kasey Hill, the team's backup point guard now relegated to the starting spot and coming off arguably his finest all-around game as a Gator. Hill will be reacquainted with Huskies senior guard Ryan Boatright, one of the best on-ball backcourt defenders in the country. Boatright will be in Hill's grill from the opening tip.
As for the challenge the O'Dome atmosphere and Rowdy Reptiles will provide in their first game back for the upcoming second semester -- and what has been a day circuled on all UF's hoop fans' calendars for some time -- will not intimidate UConn at all. There's nothing the Huskies haven't seen; nothing they've not overcome.
Or conquered.
“They're going to be a tough, physical basketball team. Defensively, they're going to get up and pressure ... and they're really terrific in the open floor,” Donovan said. “Who they are and how they play is probably pretty similar in terms of what Kevin believes his philosophy should be. And you could probably say the same thing about us.”
So much for similarities.
