Gators Shoot For Second Road Win This Week

Saturday, February 20

Columbia, SC

12:00 PM

Florida Gators

South Carolina

Forwards Devin Robinson (3) and Dorian Finney-Smith (10) in the final seconds of Tuesday night's win at Georgia.

Gators Shoot For Second Road Win This Week

Friday, February 19, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- We probably should have seen this coming from ... oh, say ... the very start of the 2015-16 season.

The Florida Gators opened at Navy and went 3-for-19 from the 3-point line. Three days later, they bombed in 15 against North Carolina A&T. Later, the Gators had a seven-game run from a Thanksgiving weekend defeat of Florida Gulf Coast to the last-second, calendar-ending loss against Florida State where they combined to hit just 34 of 146 shots from 3. That's 23.2 percent. Next, came a 9-game stretch to start Southeastern Conference play when UF made at least nine treys in seven of its games, with one of the two outliers a 3-for-19 wreck against LSU (which the Gators won).

The last two games? Try 8-for-46 (that's 23.2 percent), but with a big road victory Tuesday night at Georgia when they missed 18 of their first 19 deep balls, only to hit four of the final six (including some very big and timely ones).

Here's a bold statement: Florida is an inconsistent shooting team.

The Gators are capable enough from beyond the arc to rain a good night on anyone, but far from reliable enough ever to count on doing so.

"We are what we are," UF coach Mike White said. "We're a good team, but we're offensively challenged at times."

Which means the Gators have to challenge themselves defensively all the time and that means Saturday when Florida (17-9, 8-5) goes up against the back-alley brawling South Carolina Gamecocks (21-5, 8-5) at sold-out Colonial Arena in a game that figures to have significant ramifications on the upper part of the Southeastern Conference standings.

The blueprint for playing through a tough offensive night was there for all to see at Georgia, where UF shot just 24 percent in the first half -- 5.6 from deep -- yet defended at an absolutely elite level to keep the game close. When shots began falling after halftime, the defensive intensity not only was in place, it never let up.

"I know that for us to win consistently, our defense has to be there every night because some games we might hit, some games we may not hit, so we just got to make sure our defense is always there because our offense is pretty up and down right now," said Florida senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who went 1-for-10 from the floor against the Bulldogs and 0-for-6 from the arc. "If you're shot is not going in, you've just got to find other ways to affect the game."

And find alternate ways to put the ball through the hoop.

Maybe it was the two early field goals by 6-foot-11 center John Egbunu to start the second half that settled the Gators in confidence-wise. A six-point deficit quickly became four, but more importantly the visiting team saw proof the ball could actually drop through the basket. UF turned down some open 3s to hunt for some closer shots, but ultimately -- and somewhat ironically, given the ice-cold start -- it was 3-pointers from KeVaughn Allen (three in the second half) and a huge one by backup forward Devin Robinson that fueled the comeback.

"We've talked about shooting all year," White said. "If you're coming into a season and you've got five proven shooters with experience we'd be a much better shooting team. It's that simple. Do we have guys who can make shots? Absolutely. We have a bunch of guys who are early in their careers and will become better shooters."

Sort of like South Carolina, a team that went 45-54 over the past three seasons, but now is loaded with upperclassmen -- three starters who are seniors or juniors, with another three off the bench -- that not only are playing the hardnosed and physical style of defense that is a trademark of Coach Frank Martin's teams, but also scoring points.

Michael Carrera is the best example.

The senior forward is having an All-SEC type of season, averaging 14.6 points and 7.4 rebounds while shooting 49 percent from the floor and 46.6 from deep. Carerra shot 37 percent as a sophomore and 42 as a junior and combined for 26 3-pointers his first three seasons. He has 41 this year.

Junior guard Duane Notice, the first Gamecock off the bench, is another example, with career-highs of nearly 40 percent from the field and 42 from deep this season.

For the Gators, Finney-Smith is a textbook example of the same thing. When he was SEC Sixth Man of the Year during UF's stunning 2013-14 season, he shot 37 percent from the floor and 29 from 3. Last year, he improved those numbers to 47 and 43, respectively. This year, as the focal point of the offense, Finney-Smith is at 46.9 and 38.9 -- and that's after going just 4-for-18 overall and 0-for-8 on the long ball his last two games.

Through his of-late scoring struggles, Finney-Smith hasn't stopped defending. Neither have his teammates, even when the shots weren't falling.

To a man, that needs to be the Gators' mentality Saturday against a Gamecocks team that is reeling from two straight ugly losses and will lay it all on the line for a packed house of more than 18,000.

Meanwhile, Florida's recent shooting woes may be -- must be? -- due an uptick.

It's happened before.

"Hopefully, the law of averages kicks in a little bit, and maybe one of these next few games we'll see a really good shooting night," White said. "We've got to make great decisions. We've got to get good shots. We have to pass up good ones to get great ones. We've got to get some interior touches. And then those looks that we get, obviously we've got to knock some down on the road."