Mike White and his UF staff will have a few days to contemplate yet another meeting with Vanderbilt, this one Friday in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament .
Harry Fodder: Next Day Takeaway
Sunday, March 5, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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More from the day before, and the 73-71 loss at Vanderbilt.
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
NEXT-DAY TAKEAWAY Vanderbilt 73, No. 12 Florida 71 Three leftover thoughts from Gators' loss Saturday.
1) Sophomore centerKevarrius Hayes only played 10 minutes against the Commodores and they were 10 of his toughest minutes of the season. His plus-minus on the court was a minus-9, which was one of the reasons — certainly not the only reason — the UF coaching staff opted to go with a smaller lineup. Going small in the front court (with Keith Stoneat the "5" and Justin Leon at the "4") brought 7-foot-1 stretch-4 forward Luke Kornet out of the post and opened the lane for the Gators to drive the ball (UF only took 15 3-point shots). The strategy worked most of the game -- not all. On defense, Florida was switching ball screens on all five positions, so if Hayes was playing he ultimately would have been switched out and Kornet, who scored 24 points, would have found his way to the block, anyway. The Gators hurt themselves with poor communication (and sometimes execution) on those ball screens in surrendering too many drives layups due to late switches or bad position defense. There's a good chance UF's next game could be against Vanderbilt in quarterfinal play of the SEC Tournament (read on), so the Florida coaching staff will have a few days to reevaluate how to defend Kornet, arguably the toughest individual mismatch in the league, and Vandy's screening actions.
Sophomore center Kevarrius Hayes was 0-for-3 from the floor, with four rebounds and two points in 10 minutes Saturday.
2) Maybe it was an early second-half omen, but when guard KeVaughn Allen, an 88.6-percent free-throw shooter going into the game, missed a pair just 43 seconds into the period it helped the Commodores keep alive a 9-2 run out of the locker room that shrank a nine-point lead to two and got the crowd back in the game. The Gators still managed to take the lead out to 12, but Allen basically vanished from the offense after a torrid start when he hit four of his first five shots, including back-to-back 3s in the first half. He missed his last five field-goal attempts over the game's final 27 minutes and along the way got a little tentative on the attack; maybe even on the his last shot. Down just two points, Allen appeared to have space to drive Vandy's Nolan Cressler on the baseline with 32 seconds left — perhaps get fouled on the way — but opted for a step-back 3. It was a good shot, dead on line, but just a hair short and Vandy grabbed the rebound. It was a near repeat moment of the first meeting, when Allen was in the same far right corner, but turned down a baseline alley to drive past Matthew Fisher-Davis and went with the step-back 3. That one also didn't go. That game also was a two-point loss. For whatever reason, Allen did not seem as assertive this game as his previous three; maybe the best three-game run of his two UF seasons. … [Note: And with regards to Allen's missed free throws being an omen, who'd have thought Canyon Barry, the league-leader at 89.2 percent, would bounce a pair? His misses came with 9:22 to go and the Gators up nine, but you never know what such anomalies can do a team or opponent's psyche.]
3) As the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament, the Gators will have a bye into Friday night's quarterfinal round when they'l face either 10th-seeded Texas A&M (16-14) or seventh-seeded Vandy (17-14). The Commodores beat the Aggies twice during the regular season; on the road by 10 and at home by five. The doom's-dayers, naturally, will look at this as a worst-case scenario, with the Commodores having swept the Gators in four games over the last two seasons, with a potential (if not likely) fifth meeting now at a "neutral site" three miles from the Vandy campus. But UF will view another meeting as a chance to fix some of the things it did wrong, maybe introduce a new wrinkle or two and try to put this so-called Vandy bugaboo in the rear-view. Florida, with the loss, only fell two spots (from No. 3 to 5) in the Ratings Percentage Index, so the Gators are still candidates for a prime NCAA Tournament seed, but they have to do their part. The Selection Committee will be less inclined to do UF any favors (as in sending the Gators to Orlando for the opening NCAA weekend) should it drop three of the final four games and fail to hold seed in its conference tournament. Florida will know exactly what's at stake Friday. … [Note: The Gators could also be playing the Aggies.]
SEC TOURNAMENT BRACKET (At Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. All times are ET.)
Wednesday Game 1: 13-seed LSU (10-20) vs 12-seed Mississippi State (15-15), 7 p.m. Game 2: 14-seed Missouri (7-23) vs Auburn (18-13), 9:30 p.m.
Thursday Game 3: 9-seed Tennessee (16-15) vs 8-seed Georgia (18-13), 1 p.m. Game 4: LSU/Mississippi State winner vs 5-seed Alabama (17-13), 3:30 p.m. Game 5: 10-seed Texas A&M (16-14) vs 7-seed Vanderbilt (17-14), 7 p.m. Game 6: Missouri/Auburn winner vs 6-seed Ole Miss (19-12), 9:30
Friday (Quarterfinals) Game 7: Game 3 winner vs 1-seed Kentucky (26-5), 1 p.m. Game 8: Game 4 winner vs 4-seed South Carolina (22-9), 3:30 p.m. Game 9: Game 5 winner vs 2-seed Florida (24-7), 7 p.m. Game 10: Game 6 winner vs 3-seed Arkansas (23-8), 9:30 p.m.
Saturday (Semifinals) Game 11: Game 7 winner vs Game 8 winner, 1 p.m. Game 12: Game 9 winner vs Game 10 winner, 3:30 p.m.
1) Sophomore center Kevarrius Hayes only played 10 minutes against the Commodores and they were 10 of his toughest minutes of the season. His plus-minus on the court was a minus-9, which was one of the reasons — certainly not the only reason — the UF coaching staff opted to go with a smaller lineup. Going small in the front court (with Keith Stone at the "5" and Justin Leon at the "4") brought 7-foot-1 stretch-4 forward Luke Kornet out of the post and opened the lane for the Gators to drive the ball (UF only took 15 3-point shots). The strategy worked most of the game -- not all. On defense, Florida was switching ball screens on all five positions, so if Hayes was playing he ultimately would have been switched out and Kornet, who scored 24 points, would have found his way to the block, anyway. The Gators hurt themselves with poor communication (and sometimes execution) on those ball screens in surrendering too many drives layups due to late switches or bad position defense. There's a good chance UF's next game could be against Vanderbilt in quarterfinal play of the SEC Tournament (read on), so the Florida coaching staff will have a few days to reevaluate how to defend Kornet, arguably the toughest individual mismatch in the league, and Vandy's screening actions. 
