Florida Gators
Navy
Anchors Aweigh! Robinson Leads Gators Into Mike White Era
Saturday, November 14, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The opening tipoff of a new era of Florida basketball went off the fingertips of center John Egbunu and into the hands of KeVaughn Allen. The freshman guard grabbed the ball in stride and sprinted down the court for a lightning-fast layup.
Three seconds into the game, the Gators had a lead.
Could Mike White's teams really be that fast?
Considering UF didn't score for the next seven minutes, the answer clearly was no. Eventually, though, some normalcy set into Friday's game against Navy, as the Gators slapped some really good defensive possessions on the Midshipmen and got a career performance from sophomore forward Devin Robinson for the 59-41 victory in the nightcap of the Veterans Classic before 5,710 at Alumni Hall.
White (above), like Billy Donovan did in each of his 19 years, won his season opener. His first with the Gators.
"It's just one game in our long journey, but it's important to get our confidence going, get the ball rolling,” Robinson said after coming off the bench to finish with 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting and 10 rebounds, plus a pair of blocked shots. “We just have to keep playing as hard as we can, keep improving and trying to be better than we were the last game.”
In carding his first double-double at UF, Robinson was the game's only player to hit double-figure scoring. Allen, the prep superstar from Arkansas making his UF debut, had nine points. Point guard Kasey Hill scattered eight points, four rebounds and five assists across his box score line. Senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith got in early foul trouble and managed just four points, but cleared a game-best 12 boards. Sophomore center John Egbunu, the transfer from South Florida, had eight rebounds.
In totality, it doesn't sound like much, but it was enough for the Gators (1-0) to defeat the Midshipmen (0-1), despite turning the ball over 19 times and going just 3-for-19 from the 3-point line.
“It wasn't overly pretty, especially offensively,” White said. “But I thought we found a defensive rhythm and played pretty hard.”
White will live with the results if he can have those latter two traits show up each game. But the Gators are going to have to deal with their turnover issues. Eight days earlier, they stomped Division II Palm Beach Atlantic by 47 points, but turned it over 23 times.
Against Navy, the Gators had seven turnovers before they made their second field goal of the game. The Midshipmen led 9-2 inside 13 minutes when Robinson had an offensive stickback to break the UF drought and kick in the first of two mini-runs that allowed the visitors to start inching away.
UF center John Egbunu (15) rises for the game's opening tipoff, a play that eventually ended in the hands of guard KeVaughn Allen (4), streaking for the basket.
Seven straight UF points tied the game at 9-all with just over 10 minutes left in the half, then eight straight opened up an eight-point lead and was part of a 19-10 run to close the half, capped by a coast-to-coast rebound, finish and old-fashion 3-point play for Robinson with 1.5 seconds to play. The closest Navy could get after that was six. Little wonder, given its 28-percent shooting for the game.
“We just couldn't score,” Midshipmen coach Ed DeChillis said. “We held them to 59 and only turned the ball over 11 times. We should've had a chance, but we just couldn't make any baskets.”
The Gators get credit on that front. They were bigger and longer, with the 6-foot-11, 255-pound Egbunu inside, along with the 6-8 Finney-Smith and 6-9 Robinson working underneath. Even backup center Schuyler Rimmer, the 6-10 transfer from Stanford, got in the act in hitting all three of his field-goal attempts and grabbing four rebounds.
Offensively, UF undermined itself with errant feeds to the post, drives into traffic and offensive fouls. Four of five starters had at least three turnovers. Finney-Smith had five.
“We get into a rush sometimes, have some mental lapses,” backup point guard Chris Chiozza said after tallying seven points -- all consecutive in the first half -- plus a pair of steals. “We're not mentally focused or bought in the whole time. It's small things that can be corrected.”
White, though, wasn't so dismissive. The coach can't afford to be.
“I think we're realizing that it's not a one-game deal or week-long in-practice deal,” he said. “It's a problem for us.”
And if it's a problem against the likes of Palm Beach Atlantic and Navy ... well ... much bigger and better opponents lie ahead, obviously.
The Gators can take some comfort, though, in knowing they were careless with the ball and non-existent from the 3-point line, yet still maintained a double-digit cushion the entire second half. Credit Robinson for much of the damage. The past few weeks he has heeded the calls from the UF coaches to be more assertive when the ball is not in his hands.
Against the Midshipmen, Robinson (left) was easily the most athletic player on the floor and constantly playing above the pack when the ball was going up. On both ends.
“I know what's expected of me now,” he said.
Yes. Exactly what he did Friday. And he's capable of so much more.
“We've seen it coming for some time. He's a much better player than he as when we were having some of our mini-practices [during the summer]," White said. "He probably made the biggest jump on the team. He was really good tonight and he's just scratching the surface with his talent.”
Robinson and his teammates' energy was most pronounced inside the 3-point arc, where they put in 20 of their 30 field-goal attempts. The lack of long-range shooting didn't come into play.
This time.
The Gators and their new coach still managed to put a win in the books. Just not one for any history books.
