Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — His team had just obliterated a second straight opponent, making history along the way. No Florida team in the 102 years of the Florida men's basketball program had ever started a season with back-to-back games of at least 100 points.

In the post-game locker room afterward, UF coach Mike White was talking about defense.

"It's the first, second, third and fourth things we talked about," White said Thursday night.

Three days after winning its season opener by 42 points, the eighth-ranked Gators pummeled North Florida 108-68, as six different players hit double figures and even a pair of walk-ons got in the scoring column.

Junior guard KeVaughn Allen led the way with 18 points and five rebounds, but both graduate transfer forward Egor Koulechov and senior point guard Chris Chiozza had complete games that filled the stat sheet. Koulechov, who Monday poured in 34 in a 116-74 rout of Gardner-Webb, had 13 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and tallied five assists. Chiozza had nine points, five rebounds and seven assists. Sophomore forward Keith Stone had 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the floor, junior transfer wingman Jalen Hudson had 13 points off the bench and sophomore center Gorjok Gak, who made his first career start, had a career-high 12 points. Freshman guard Deaundrae Ballard also went for 12 in reserve.

As a team, the Gators (2-0) shot 53.2 percent from the floor, hit 11 of 25 from beyond the 3-point line (44 percent) and had a 48-31 advantage on the glass, including 19 offensive rebounds.

And yet when given the opportunity to talk about another blistering offensive display, the Florida players were in lockstep with their coach.

"We can be dangerous scoring and we can go deep on our bench, but we don't want to hang our hat on offense," Hudson said. "We'll give ourselves a chance every night if we just sit down and guard."

Yeah, but what about how fun it was to race up and down the floor and light up the Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center scoreboard for the second time this week?

"Yeah, that was fun, but getting stops is funner because we know Coach White loves defense," Stone said. "We get stops, Coach White gets happy, and we like seeing that. He's a defensive-minded dude."

As such, White was probably pleased seeing the Gators limit the Ospreys (0-4) to just seven field goals on 26 first-half shots. UNF also came in averaging 12.3 3-point field goals per game (after attempting 40 the last time out), but had only two on 14 attempts through the first 20 minutes, as UF rolled to a 45-23 advantage.

But the second half was a little different.
 
North Florida hit 48.3 percent from the floor after the break (14-for-29), and while the Ospreys never cut into the Florida cushion, making nearly half of their second-half shots was all White needed to see and get on his defensive high horse.

Not that he ever dismounts it.

"We have to guard at a much higher level, rebound at a much higher level, guard without fouling," White said. "There were some good things. The defensive intensity from the jump was better than the other night — the best its been [three preseason games, included], and I think there's a correlation in getting out of your comfort zone on the defensive end and shots not falling at quite the same clip. That's why we have to maintain that level of defensive energy and intensity and condition ourselves to be able to execute our offense and make shots."

A lot of guys made a bunch. Even walk-ons Andrew Fava and Mak Krause, who were elevated from managers to the roster just last week, got into their second straight game. Krause hit a free throw, while Fava scored on a backdoor cut and drive to the basket that ended with a reverse layup in the final minute to send the Rowdy Reptiles (and the UF bench) into a frenzy.

"That was cool," Gak said.

So was something UNF coach Matt Driscoll said in his turn at the post-game podium.

"In all my years of coaching — and this is my 30th year — this is probably one of the most unselfish teams that has so many guys that can score the ball," Driscoll said of the Gators. "This is a Final Four team."

White was told of that latter remark. He thought it was uncool.

No surprise, White went on the defensive.

"Wow, I used to really like him," White said. "Well, I think he's going to go undefeated in his league."

Savage response. Sort of like the defense he inspires his team to play, no matter the score.