Florida Gators
Vanderbilt
Gators Off Key From Start in Music City
Wednesday, February 4, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Florida Gators had an excellent opportunity Tuesday night to show their coach that the fight and desperation on display in closing out a couple tough Southeastern Conference wins last week made up a direction this 2014-15 team was trending.
Instead, they showed up at Vanderbilt about nine minutes late.
Vandy, reeling from seven straight losses, scored the game's first 15 points, then pounded away on the glass and popped away from the free-throw line in handling the Gators from start to finish in a 67-61 humbling in front of a sparse crowd of 9,815 at old Memorial Gym.
Freshmen guard Riley LaChance scored 15 points, with all his field goals coming from the 3-point line, and senior forward James Siakam, making just his seventh start of the season, beasted his way to 12 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots in displaying more fire than the Gators showed combined.
“We didn't come out with any passion or energy,” Florida junior guard Michael Frazier said. “They did.”
Frazier shook out of a two-game shooting slump to make four 3-point shots on his way to a team-high 21 points and did his best to get his team back in the game by scoring 16 of its 20 points over one stretch. But by the time he and the Gators (12-10, 5-4) were done sleep-walking through the first eight minutes, the hole they'd dug was just too deep to overcome.
Junior guard Michael Frazier, with his game-high 21 points and 4-for-6 shooting from 3-point range, was the lone bright spot in an otherwise tough night for the Gators. Here he's pursued by three Vanderbilt defenders during a fastbreak opportunity in the second half.
Granted, UF twice pulled within three points in the second half, and kept within striking distance for most of the period, but when a stop, basket or hustle was absolutely needed, Vandy was one that came up with it.
“It's getting late in the season,” said junior guard Eli Carter, who scored 13 points, but was just 5-for-17 from the field and 2-for-9 from 3-point range. “We have to start coming out with the right mindset every game or else this is what's going to happen. Things just have to change.”
They should probably change quickly, given No. 1-ranked and unbeaten Kentucky rolls into Gainesville this weekend. The Wildcats represent an entirely different set of problems, but the Gators have plenty of their own to worry about right now.
The Commodores (12-10, 2-7), who entered the game in a tie for last place in the league, got 13 points, seven rebounds and four blocks from 6-foot-10 sophomore center Damian Jones and 11 points, five rebounds and five assists out of freshman point guard Wade Baldwin IV. Collectively, Vandy manhandled UF inside all night, crushing the Gators 42-26 on the glass, but going a whopping 29-for-42 from the free-throw line.
“We were annihilated,” Coach Billy Donovan said.
Florida, meanwhile, shot just 36.8 percent for the game, made only six of 19 shots from 3-point range (31.6 percent) and got only four points and four rebounds in 27 minutes from junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith, the team's top scorer and rebounder who fouled out with nearly nine minutes left. The Gators got no field goals, just four points and four rebounds from its low-post combination of Jon Horford and Chris Walker.
“Coming on the road to play, you can't play occasionally with that kind of effort,” Donovan said, actually referencing his team's lack of effort. “It showed up in two areas: the rebounding margin and us being a step late in guarding them and putting them at the free-throw line as much as we did.” 
Florida missed its first nine field-goal attempts before backup forward Alex Murphy worked for a layup at the 12:07 mark of the opening period. The play actually kick-started a 10-point run for the Gators, who closed the lead to five, at 15-10, before the Commodores took it out again to 13. The margin was back down to only eight, 31-23, at intermission.
“Felt like we should have been down more,” Frazier said.
When Frazier opened the second half with a 3-pointer, the lead was back down to five before the Commodores spaced it out again. In fact, the Gators on 10 occasions in the second half had the lead down to five and twice within three. Each time, Vandy had an answer, despite turning the ball over 18 times (compared to just eight for Florida).
Only once did UF have the ball when it was a one-possession game. Carter nailed a 3-pointer at the 6:52 mark to cut Vanderbilt's lead to 54-51. The Commodores had two shots on their next possession, missing both, when the Gators got to their end and got Frazier a decent look at a game-tying trey.
The ball bounced off the back of the rim and 20 seconds later Riley stroked a three to nudge the margin back out to six. Three more times UF got the lead down to five, once to four, but the game turned into a free-throw fest for the home team. Vandy was in the bonus from the 11:55 mark of the second half and was able to ice the game by going 18 of 24 for the line after intermission.
“The start was unbelievable,” Commodores coach Kevin Stallings said of his team making six of its first nine field-goal tries. “Florida's come in here a few times and smacked us silly before we even realized the game had started, so we really put a lot of emphasis on trying to start well.”
This time, the other guys didn't know the game started.
“I wish I had answer for that,” Donovan said.
There are only so many places to look for one.
