Dorian Finney-Smith was fired up from the opening tip of Saturday's win over LSU. He needs to be again Tuesday at A&M.
Gators Enter A&M Knowing it's All About Energy
Tuesday, January 12, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- A couple times during Florida's post-game session after Saturday's defeat of LSU, point guard Chris Chiozza chalked up his team's increased intensity level to a more mature approach to the game; to not letting the Tigers come in and treat the Gators like boys.
Basically, to acting like men.
Considering the -- Oh, how to put this? -- adolescent performance Florida took on the road to Tennessee three days earlier, it's only natural to wonder if that same levelheadedness on display against the Tigers travels.
Chiozza said it himself. The Gators have to be men about it.
"You can't get too proud of just one win," he said. "Now, we'll see if we can pack it up and take it to an away game. It's about being mentally strong."
Florida (10-5, 2-1) will need all the mental might it can muster Tuesday night when it clashes with No. 21 Texas A&M (13-2, 3-0) at Reed Arena. It'll mark the fourth time the Gators have faced a ranked opponent this season, with UF winless in the previous three circumstances. The Gators lost 85-70 to No. 21 Purdue on a neutral court, were hammered by No. 17 Miami 66-55 on the road, then four days later put some serious toughness on tape in falling 58-52 at No. 1 Michigan State.
It'll be that kind of Spartan effort Coach Mike White will be looking for -- and the Gators absolutely have to have -- against an Aggies team that not only is loaded with firepower on offense but doesn't make a lot of mistakes.
"That was a game we simply battled," White said of the trip to East Lansing, Mich., a game UF led by three with about nine minutes to go. "We played as hard as any game we've played all year. That's the intensity we'll have to match, most importantly, before we talk about doing anything else."
That includes whether it's trying to slow down the backcourt of Alex Caruso and Anthony Collins, body up on forwards Jalen Jones and Danuel House -- four of them battle-test seniors -- or dealing with 6-foot-10, 265-pound freshman Tyler Davis, who lost 100 pounds after signing his A&M national letter of intent and now leads the Southeastern Conference in field-goal percentage (.678). Junior forward DeVon Walker"They're a very, very good team," Florida junior forward DeVon Walker said. "The only way that we will have a chance is if we come out and throw the first punch and we go out there aggressive in everything that we do on both the offensive and defensive end. It's about sustaining the energy that we had the last game."
There are five holdovers from that 2014-15 UF squad that went 16-17 and along the lost nine games when leading in the second half, but also had four games (all losses) when they fell behind at least 10-0 to start the game.
Donovan and his coaches hammered away all last season about wire-to-wire energy. Like an ability to hits 3s and free throws, the Gators didn't always have it.
Ring a bell?
"The maturity level of this team, the consistency of this team, [is] probably a similar makeup to last year, from everything that I hear and from what I've seen on film," White said. "I'd like to think it's improving a little bit, [but] you're only as good as your last one and we're coming off a good one."
Yeah, and six days ago they were coming off a bad one.
UF trailed by 30 at Knoxville in the second half. By the time the Gators had to tee it up Saturday against LSU and arguably the best amateur basketball player on the planet, they came to the O'Connell Center with probably a little edge; maybe even a little fear. The good kind. The fear that a similar effort would be an embarrassment before their home crowd and national TV.
Turned out, the latest in a long line of woeful offensive performances (38.1 percent from the floor, 16.7 from the arc and 56.7 from the free-throw line) was offset by the fact the Gators just played harder. It's their magic elixir.
It was evident instantly. Senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who has a tendency to start game's slowly, was hot, bouncy and upbeat from the beginning. UF often plays to Finney-Smith's personality. "Doe-Doe" was getting it done-done and his teammates fell in line.
"Going into the LSU, it was just reinforced," Walker said of the need to bring the passion. "We haven't been playing very well offensively. The only way we'll give ourselves a chance to win is not to depend on shots going in."
