UF Searching for Signs of Defensive Growth

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Mike White went to the locker room for halftime of Saturday's game against Vanderbilt thoroughly satisfied, even a tad impressed (if not surprised), with just how well his defensively challenged Florida basketball team had guarded Southeastern Conference foe Vanderbilt.

And then came the second half.

After the best 20 minutes of defense the Gators had put on tape all season, holding the Commodores to just 20 points and 28-percent shooting, they followed with arguably their worst 20 minutes. That's saying something. UF gave up 54 points and allowed 51-percent shooting, yet managed to do enough on the offensive end to hold for an 81-74 win to open the league season.

The Gators won the game, White said, because of what they did on the offensive end, thanks to their highest-scoring output in four weeks. UF's most points in a month and how it scored them was the positive take-away from Game 1 of the SEC season.

For now, whatever steps (even baby ones) this team makes are a welcome sight for White.

"We had a flow to us," he said. "I liked our poise and our composure, offensively, We attacked the rim, attacked the paint at a higher level than we have, and therefore got to the foul line more and, of course, converted [there] with a lot of confidence."

Ninety-percent worth of confidence, in fact.

Now, if the Gators can just show some gains on the other end of the floor; preferably, for more than a half. Duplicating the defensive numbers they put up in the first half would have been a lot to ask, but going the opposite way made for quite a downer for the UF coaches. Baskets came entirely too easy for the Commodores over the second 20 minutes.

"We didn't have that same sense of urgency coming out in the second half," senior point guard Chris Chiozza said. "It's hard to do when you have a first half like that. We knew they weren't going to lay down. We had some breakdowns and they made us pay."

But not with a loss.

Instead, the Gators (9-4, 0-1) will take a modest three-game winning streak on the road Tuesday night to face No. 11 Texas A&M (11-2, 0-1) at Reed Arena in what will mark UF's first true away game of the season. It will come against an Aggies team that boasts some of the best defensive statistics in the college game — and one of the best front courts in the nation — but also a team that is dealing with a rash of roster issues.

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's 'Pregame Stuff' breakdown here]

The same night UF polished off Vandy, A&M took its depleted squad to Alabama and got plastered 79-57. The Aggies' leading scorer, D.J. Hogg, is suspended through the UF game for violating team rules. Their starting two-guard, Admon Gilder, has missed three games with a knee injury and may have to sit out this one, also. Their point guard, Duane Wilson, left the Alabama game in the second half with a knee injury and is not expected to play. And 6-foot-9 power forward Robert Williams, the 2017 SEC Defensive Player of the Year, suffered a knee injury in the first half against the Crimson Tide and was limited to just 21 minutes. Williams will play against the Gators, but how effective he'll be remains to be seen.

The same could be said for the Aggies, as a whole. Or as A&M coach Billy Kennedy put it after the lopsided loss: "We've got guys playing out of position at times and we looked like a dysfunctional team because we were."

Maybe so, but the Aggies will be a desperate team for this game, make no mistake. They may be down in bodies, but they'll feed their front court — a banged-up Williams, but also 6-foot-10 center Tyler Davis, plus 6-11 forward Tony Trocha-Morelos — against the undersized Gators and probably instruct their battlefield-promoted guards to hard-drive against a UF defense that showed very little resistance in the second half against also-undersized Vandy.

A&M may be undermanned right now, but it's not undersized.

"It will be a bloodbath on the interior, of course. It needs to be for us to have any chance," White said. "We've got to put forth as great a physical effort as we have this year just to have a chance at the end of the game. It's going to be a very, very tough task for us."

Being rugged and stout (mentally or physically) hasn't exactly been UF's calling cards this season.

"As we know, we're not the toughest team, [not] the most physical team," White said. "We've learned how to play a little bit harder, but it's still a process for us."

The offense grew a bit the last time out. Now, that growth on that end needs to be maintained, while channeling some in the direction of the defense.

That's the next stage of the process.

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