Gamecocks Defense Off the Charts

Wednesday, January 18

Columbia, SC

6:30 PM

Florida Gators

South Carolina

UF coach Mike White has seen some slippage in his team's defense the last few weeks. South Carolina's defense is trending the other direction.

Gamecocks Defense Off the Charts

Wednesday, January 18, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

Gators will have to earn their points in Columbia.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

COLUMBIA, S.C. — About halfway through Monday's practice, Florida coach Mike White interrupted the scripted order of drills and set half his players up in different spots around the court. Then he made a declaration to his team.

"We are going to get back to guarding!"

A few weeks ago, the Gators were playing some of the best defense in the country, according to the Ken Pomeroy statistics considered the bible of college basketball advance metrics, peaking at No. 5 nationally. But after surrendering 48 percent from the floor (and getting smashed by nine on the glass) in Saturday's 80-76 overtime win over Georgia, Florida had allowed its previous four opponents to combine to hit nearly 49 percent from the floor.

Where do the Gators rank now?

Down to 21st.

So it was time to do some lane slides to emphasize fundamentals. The players on the floor were told to get in a defensive stance — legs bent, butt down, arms spread — and on the whistle commence sliding back and forth (10 feet to the left, 10 to the right) for 30 seconds. After the first group, the second stepped onto the floor and did the same thing.

Just call it a refresher course, as White pushes whatever buttons he deems necessary to try and get his club's defensive mojo back. UF, winner of seven straight and up to No. 19 in the latest Associated Press poll, is still a very good defensive team, but no longer elite on that end of the floor. That is the coaching staff's goal.

Should they need any further brushing up on state-of-the-art guarding, the Gators (14-3, 5-0) need only to look inches in front of them Wednesday night at the hyenas dressed in South Carolina uniforms when they take on the No. 24 Gamecocks (14-3, 4-0) at sold-out Colonial Life Arena. All USC does is lead the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom, and the Southeastern Conference in six major categories on defense, including scoring (59.8 points per game), opponent's field-goal (.364) and 3-point percentage (.279), 3-pointers allowed (4.7), turnovers (17.1) and steals (8.4).

"Our defense is better than it's been in the past," said USC senior guard and leading scorer Sindarius Thornwell, a member of SEC All-Defensive Team last season. "Our defense always gives us a chance."

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's 'Pregame Stuff' UF-USC preview here]

The Gamecocks are a reflection of their coach, Frank Martin, now in his fifth season in the SEC. Martin was a bulldog defensive player as a high school kid at Miami Senior, coached that mentality when he took over his prep alma mater and then trebled it when he was hired to his first collegiate job as an assistant for Bobby Huggins at Cincinnati and later at Kansas State.

Huggins and Martin were a great fit because they shared the same principles of "up-the-line" defense, a system that starts with in-your-jersey pressure on the ball and spreads to denying perimeter passing through overplays and face-guarding to the point of basically eliminating not just ball reversal, but routine passing.

"It may sound hard, but they do it every day for three hours," UF assistant coach Darris Nichols said. "If you do it for three hours every day, when you get into the game have do it for 40 minutes, it's not that hard."

Nichols would know. He was a senior point guard at West Virginia when Huggins arrived there in 2007. He was charged with the all-out pressing of the opposing point guard and, in the event his man got rid of the ball (usually off a ball screen), being in proper "up the line" positioning between his man and the ball.

At practice, if your man executed a perimeter pass, Nichols said you were sent to the treadmill. That became the standard.

"They're just not going to let you run your stuff. They're going to deny by over-pressing and they're going to force you to do stuff you don't normally do, and non-handlers to have to handle the ball," Nichols said. "They don't want you to complete passes. And a lot of teams that do a lot of ball reversals, they struggle with that."

That's because they end up trying to force a pass or throw over the defense. Instead, the ball is tipped, a turnover occurs and the Gamecocks are off and running.

"Live-ball turnovers on the road in the SEC are always very, very important, but especially against the Gamecocks. They thrive off turning you over and getting in transition, especially at home," White said. "They have a great ability to get hands on basketballs, to overpressure you into making unsound decisions, speeding you up. So slowing down, playing off two feet, coming to jump stops, meeting passes, securing the basketball, a lot of fundamental 'Basketball 101' things are very important against this defense that creates a ton of havoc."

Because the passing windows are so tight (if there at all), it's good to have guys who can make something happen on their own. The Gators have point guards Kasey Hill and Chris Chiozza who are capable of beating their man off the dribble and attacking the lane. They have KeVaughn Allen, who is excellent off the bounce, penetrating and finishing at the rim They have Barry, who is deceptively deft at finding an angle to the rim and scoring off the glass.

Nothing will come easy, however. The Gamecocks are well-schooled in their low-post defense and guys like the long and athletic 6-foot-9, 223-pound sophomore Chris Silva, know how to wall up and bring help when their perimeter is penetrated. In the event a Gator can beat his man off the dribble, it'll come down to good decisions.

Anyone remember what happened here last year?

Florida led by one with 35 seconds to play when Chiozza drove the right baseline, found a stacked defense under the basket and left his feet for a jump pass, a big-time no-no in White's book of fundamentals. Chiozza tried to force a ball into the middle of the defense. The pass was intercepted and outleted for a run-dunk by Thornwell that rocked the house and turned the game.

USC went on to win in overtime, handing UF a loss that was costly to their bubbling NCAA Tournament chances.

So, it's time to get back to slide back to some "Basketball 101" things.

On both ends of the floor.