Tuesday, January 19
Gainesville, FL
7:00 PM
Florida Gators
vs
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Mississippi State
UF coach Mike White gives guidance to junior guard Kasey Hill during Saturday night's win at Ole Miss.
Gators Looking for SEC Winning Streak
Tuesday, January 19, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- As soon as the Florida Gators were done with their Sunday practice warmup routine, Coach Mike White ordered them into circle passing drills. White reminded his players of the slew of live-ball turnovers committed in the win the night before at Ole Miss.
The drill splits the team in half. There is a defender in each circle. Players must pass the ball to a teammate that is not next to him. The ball has to move quickly.
The Gators were turning it over.
Not good enough.
White stopped practice and reminded his players about those turnovers. About how the drill mirrored the type of pinpoint passing that would be needed against a zone defense like the next opponent, Mississippi State, would throw at them.
The drill began again. A few more turnovers followed. Again, White stopped the action.
"C'mon!" he screamed. "Good win last night ... but it's over!"
True enough. UF did pick up a nice victory Saturday night when it went into Oxford, Miss., and not only never trailed but shot the lights out of the Rebels' sparkling new gym. The win gave the Gators (11-6, 3-2) their first Southeastern Conference road victory in eight tries, dating to last season, and now White gets to see if his team is mature enough to build on a modicum of prosperity by defending its O'Connell Center turf Tuesday night against Mississippi State (7-9, 0-4) and start stringing some wins together.
"We definitely don't think we got anything figured out," junior point guard Kasey Hill said. "For us, it's about focus and where we are mentally. We have talent and if we focus and play hard we know we can play with anybody."
And yet?
"First we have to put together two good games."
The Gators have not beaten consecutive high-major opponents this season, so the first two-game winning streak in the SEC since last season would be seen as progress for this mixed-bag bunch with a lot of first- and second-year players being counted on for big roles.
"Just try to remind them [that] after we play good against a good team, the next game we tend to have a bad game," senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. "So just try not to cheat the process. Just try to have a good practice every day."
UF had a couple decent ones Sunday and Monday. The goal, obviously, is to have that productivity transfer to Tuesday night; preferably with the shooting the Gators took with them over the weekend when they went a scorching 11-for-20 from 3-point range, led by freshman guard KeVaughn Allen's 27 points on 6-for-7 shooting from deep.
For all the team's offensive woes this season -- and there have been many, considering the Gators are last in the league in field-goal, 3-point and free-throw percentages -- UF has hit 37.5 percent from the arc in conference play and made at least nine long balls in four of those five SEC outings.
If the Gators can maintain their high level of defense (3rd in the league), play with high effort and energy (they've had lapses, but few), keep those offensive numbers on the uptick (even incrementally) and limit turnovers (been mostly good in that phase), this is a team that will give itself a chance every time out.
Those are a lot of important elements that have to go right on a given night, but that's what good teams do.
They also improve as a season goes on. Sort of like UF's shooting of late.
"To think that we'd just come out and be a great shooting team this year -- when you're relying on freshmen and unproven sophomores to make a bunch of shots for you -- was probably not the right thing to think," said White, who admitted to being overly optimistic with what he saw from his players offensively in offseason and preseason. "We've been streaky. We obviously shot it well at Ole Miss, which was huge for us. But we've said it all year: When we're making making shots, we're pretty good."
They definitely made 'em Saturday.
But that's over.
The drill splits the team in half. There is a defender in each circle. Players must pass the ball to a teammate that is not next to him. The ball has to move quickly.
The Gators were turning it over.
Not good enough.
White stopped practice and reminded his players about those turnovers. About how the drill mirrored the type of pinpoint passing that would be needed against a zone defense like the next opponent, Mississippi State, would throw at them.
The drill began again. A few more turnovers followed. Again, White stopped the action.
"C'mon!" he screamed. "Good win last night ... but it's over!"
True enough. UF did pick up a nice victory Saturday night when it went into Oxford, Miss., and not only never trailed but shot the lights out of the Rebels' sparkling new gym. The win gave the Gators (11-6, 3-2) their first Southeastern Conference road victory in eight tries, dating to last season, and now White gets to see if his team is mature enough to build on a modicum of prosperity by defending its O'Connell Center turf Tuesday night against Mississippi State (7-9, 0-4) and start stringing some wins together.
"We definitely don't think we got anything figured out," junior point guard Kasey Hill said. "For us, it's about focus and where we are mentally. We have talent and if we focus and play hard we know we can play with anybody."
And yet?
"First we have to put together two good games."
The Gators have not beaten consecutive high-major opponents this season, so the first two-game winning streak in the SEC since last season would be seen as progress for this mixed-bag bunch with a lot of first- and second-year players being counted on for big roles.
"Just try to remind them [that] after we play good against a good team, the next game we tend to have a bad game," senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. "So just try not to cheat the process. Just try to have a good practice every day."
UF had a couple decent ones Sunday and Monday. The goal, obviously, is to have that productivity transfer to Tuesday night; preferably with the shooting the Gators took with them over the weekend when they went a scorching 11-for-20 from 3-point range, led by freshman guard KeVaughn Allen's 27 points on 6-for-7 shooting from deep.
For all the team's offensive woes this season -- and there have been many, considering the Gators are last in the league in field-goal, 3-point and free-throw percentages -- UF has hit 37.5 percent from the arc in conference play and made at least nine long balls in four of those five SEC outings.
If the Gators can maintain their high level of defense (3rd in the league), play with high effort and energy (they've had lapses, but few), keep those offensive numbers on the uptick (even incrementally) and limit turnovers (been mostly good in that phase), this is a team that will give itself a chance every time out.
Those are a lot of important elements that have to go right on a given night, but that's what good teams do.
They also improve as a season goes on. Sort of like UF's shooting of late.
"To think that we'd just come out and be a great shooting team this year -- when you're relying on freshmen and unproven sophomores to make a bunch of shots for you -- was probably not the right thing to think," said White, who admitted to being overly optimistic with what he saw from his players offensively in offseason and preseason. "We've been streaky. We obviously shot it well at Ole Miss, which was huge for us. But we've said it all year: When we're making making shots, we're pretty good."
They definitely made 'em Saturday.
But that's over.
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Players Mentioned
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