Point guard Chris Chiozza was on the attack en route to his triple-double Thursday night against Missouri.
Harry Fodder: Next-Day Takeaway
Friday, February 3, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
More from the night before, a 93-56 pummeling of Missouri.
NEXT-DAY TAKEAWAY
Florida 93, Missouri 56
Three leftover thoughts from Gators' home win Thursday night.
1) Not sure any more need be (or can be) said about the performance of Chris Chiozza, who tallied the first triple-double by a UF player since 2009 and the first by a Division-I reserve since 2008. He's obviously shaken whatever funk he was in to start the Southeastern Conference season. Chiozza scored just eight points in his first three league games. He had five turnovers at South Carolina. He was 2-for-15 from the 3-point arc through the first seven SEC games. But during UF's three-game winning streak, Chiozza's assist-to-turnover ratio is a whopping 24-to-4. He had 10 assists and five rebounds at LSU, while sinking a trio of treys. Chiozza has that look, one of confidence, he had during a stretch last season when he played — at that point — the best basketball of his career. Let's see where he goes from here.
2) The Gators are now the second-worst rebounding team in the SEC. That's progress. It was just last week Florida was last in the league, and just a couple weeks ago the Gators were hovering around — get this — 300th in the nation (out of 351) when it came to rebounding the basketball on the defensive end. And like the challenge Coach Mike White put to his team relative to improving its defensive efficiency after a sub-standard first half of the league season, White wanted more from his players and on the glass, as well. After failing to out-rebound any of their first five conference foes, the Gators have won the battle of the boards the last four games, with a plus-48 edge during their three-game winning streak. UF atomized Missouri 56-32, with seven guys pulling at least four and two (Chiozza and Devin Robinson) hitting double figures. Kentucky, obviously, will be a different animal, but also tremendous gauge as to whether the Gators have become a better rebounding team or just taken advantage of the competition. UK not only leads the SEC in rebounding, the Wildcats are 10th nationally at 40.8 per game and 13th in the country on the offensive glass (14.3 pg). Robinson averages 5.7 rebounds per game, but is at 7.8 over the last five games, including a pair a double-figure efforts. Let's see what he can do against the big, bad Cats.
3) UF doesn't make the schedule. The Gators can only control what's put in front of them. LSU, Oklahoma and Missouri are struggling now, without question, but White and his troops deserve credit for handling their business against inferior opponents. The consecutive blowouts on the road were impressive, but everybody expected the Gators simply to run roughshod over the Tigers, despite the Kentucky carrot dangling in the background. That certainly was pause for concern for the coaches, whose job is to worry about such things. As it turned out, Florida did what it was supposed to do to a team like Mizzou at home. That showed signs of a maturity. Makes sense. The Gators are a good team, but also a veteran team. They're supposed to act that way.
Florida 93, Missouri 56
Three leftover thoughts from Gators' home win Thursday night.
1) Not sure any more need be (or can be) said about the performance of Chris Chiozza, who tallied the first triple-double by a UF player since 2009 and the first by a Division-I reserve since 2008. He's obviously shaken whatever funk he was in to start the Southeastern Conference season. Chiozza scored just eight points in his first three league games. He had five turnovers at South Carolina. He was 2-for-15 from the 3-point arc through the first seven SEC games. But during UF's three-game winning streak, Chiozza's assist-to-turnover ratio is a whopping 24-to-4. He had 10 assists and five rebounds at LSU, while sinking a trio of treys. Chiozza has that look, one of confidence, he had during a stretch last season when he played — at that point — the best basketball of his career. Let's see where he goes from here. 2) The Gators are now the second-worst rebounding team in the SEC. That's progress. It was just last week Florida was last in the league, and just a couple weeks ago the Gators were hovering around — get this — 300th in the nation (out of 351) when it came to rebounding the basketball on the defensive end. And like the challenge Coach Mike White put to his team relative to improving its defensive efficiency after a sub-standard first half of the league season, White wanted more from his players and on the glass, as well. After failing to out-rebound any of their first five conference foes, the Gators have won the battle of the boards the last four games, with a plus-48 edge during their three-game winning streak. UF atomized Missouri 56-32, with seven guys pulling at least four and two (Chiozza and Devin Robinson) hitting double figures. Kentucky, obviously, will be a different animal, but also tremendous gauge as to whether the Gators have become a better rebounding team or just taken advantage of the competition. UK not only leads the SEC in rebounding, the Wildcats are 10th nationally at 40.8 per game and 13th in the country on the offensive glass (14.3 pg). Robinson averages 5.7 rebounds per game, but is at 7.8 over the last five games, including a pair a double-figure efforts. Let's see what he can do against the big, bad Cats.
3) UF doesn't make the schedule. The Gators can only control what's put in front of them. LSU, Oklahoma and Missouri are struggling now, without question, but White and his troops deserve credit for handling their business against inferior opponents. The consecutive blowouts on the road were impressive, but everybody expected the Gators simply to run roughshod over the Tigers, despite the Kentucky carrot dangling in the background. That certainly was pause for concern for the coaches, whose job is to worry about such things. As it turned out, Florida did what it was supposed to do to a team like Mizzou at home. That showed signs of a maturity. Makes sense. The Gators are a good team, but also a veteran team. They're supposed to act that way.
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