UF center John Egbunu banged for 11 rebounds against the hard-boarding Bulldogs last month.
Rebounding Uptick Faces Big Test at Georgia
Tuesday, February 7, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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The Bulldogs took the Gators to OT last month in Gainesville.
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
ATHENS, Ga. — Barely two minutes into the Florida-Georgia game last month, Gators forward Justin Leon took a pass, set his feet and let fly a 3-point shot. UF forward Devin Robinson, floating on the perimeter, saw Leon release the ball and did what he's been coached to do. He headed to the glass looking for an offensive rebound.
But one step into his crash, Bulldogs guard Jordan Harris planted both his forearms in Robinson's chest — Bam! — knocking the Gator off balance and sending him in the other direction. Maybe sending a message, also.
The Gators went on to win a hard-fought game in overtime. Robinson, though, finished 1-for-5 from the floor and grabbed just two rebounds in 19 minutes. Whether Harris' well-aimed, not-so-well-intended shove had any bearing on Robinson's output is uncertain. What would seem less uncertain, though, is that three weeks later, Robinson and his UF teammates appear far less willing to be pushed around under the basket. Anyone who watched Saturday's utter dismantling of then-No. 8 Kentucky saw one of the most dominant and physical performances by a UF team in recent memory.
"We've always had the ability to rebound," said junior Chris Chiozza, a 6-foot guard who combined for 21 rebounds the last two games. "It's a matter of wanting to do it."
If that's the case, the Wednesday night rematch between the No. 17 Gators (18-5, 8-2), winners of four straight, and struggling Bulldogs (13-10, 4-6), losers of four straight Southeastern Conference games, at Stegeman Coliseum should offer a little more clarity — maybe even some affirmation — as to how much tougher the Florida team has become on the glass.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's UF-Georgia 'Pregame Stuff' preview here]
In that last meeting, an 80-76 victory at Gainesville, the Bulldogs banged to a 41-32 rebounding advantage, tying for the largest deficit by the Gators this season. At the time, it was no surprise. UF, in fact, was out-rebounded 10 times (and stalemated twice more) over a stretch of 16 games, yet had a 5-0 record in SEC play despite being dead-last in the league in defensive rebounding and 13th in rebounding margin.
Then came The Meeting that has become a topical subject when discussing UF basketball of late; the one following a home loss to Vanderbilt. The upshot of it all was prioritizing defense and rebounding, ordered by Coach Mike White. The four games games since have yielded deadly efficient results, including back-to-back rebounding margins of plus-24 against Missouri (the SEC's last place team) and plus-25 against Kentucky (tied for first-place team at the time and the No. 1 rebounding squad in the league).
UF has moved up to eighth in the SEC in total rebounds (37.7 per game), sixth in offensive rebounds (12.4 per) and fifth in rebounding margin (plus-3.3). What gives?
"It's heart," Robinson said.
That's part of it. Rebounding, as they say, is effort and attitude. But there are other, more tangible reasons behind the Gators' improvement there.
"There's a little less focus on going to get the ball and more focus on doing your job and [preventing] the guy you're responsible for from getting the ball," White said. "If so-and-so [teammate] gets the rebound and you don't, we got the rebound. We did our jobs. You blocked out. You don't get credit for the rebound, but you blocked out and made a heckuva play. … It doesn't show up in the stat sheet, but there's an unselfishness — and we've become more unselfish. Not just offensively, but defensively. We're focused on the right things."
Backup center Kevarrius Hayes had nine a career-high rebounds at Oklahoma, the second game of UF's current four-game winning streak. The Gators out-rebounding the Sooners by 11 and have out-rebounded their opponents by 64 over those four games.
They'll need to be against the Dogs, who are fighting to remain relevant in the SEC and would like nothing better than to take out the legs of the team that just beat the team. Georgia has arguably the best post player in the league in 6-foot-8 power forward Yante Maten, who's averaging 19.7 points, 7.4 rebounds and shooting better than 49 percent overall and from the 3-point line. Maten never got a chance to get warmed up in that first Florida game, thanks to early foul trouble. He finished with just 15 points and four rebounds in only 19 minutes and fouled out late in regulation, yet the Dogs still had a nine-rebound advantage in the game.
That's because guys like Derek Ogbeide (10 rebounds) and Juwan Parker (7 more) were bouncing around above their Gator counterparts. UGA had five players with at least four boards. UF got 11 from center John Egbunu and another seven from Canyon Barry, both off the bench, but the Gators' starting front line that day totaled six.
Fast forward to Kentucky game: Six Gators had at least four; three had at least seven; Robinson had nine.
Because UF has not pressed a single possession over the past four games (with double-digit leads, he Gators didn't have to), there have been less turnovers forced and therefore more possessions leading to missed shots and rebounds. The UF coaches say their players are chasing rebounds better; literally jumping for balls, something that wasn't always the case before. Better defense across the board also has helped, but so has playing some teams that weren't overly physical.
Georgia will be. The Dogs are wounded and looking for some payback, to boot.
So watch for early forearms to the chest.
"I mean, they almost beat us [and] we didn't play well," UF senior point guard Kasey Hill said. "We just have to keep that in mind."
