PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — The lay-it-on-the-line talk Mike White had with his Florida basketball team late Wednesday night ran long. That was because the video review of his team's loss to Oklahoma ran long; so long, in fact, the Gators were told they needed to vacate their banquet room because one of the other teams in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament needed it.
So White took his players elsewhere, but the no-nonsense theme — about defending their man-to-man gaps, tracing the basketball, boxing out, not leaking out; one point of emphasis after another the UF coaches talk about ad nauseam during practices and meetings — continued at the next stop. The players that executed their assignments would be rewarded with minutes, White said. Simple as that.
And so when Florida took the court Thursday night for a loser's bracket matchup against Stanford the team did so with freshman guard Noah Locke in the starting lineup in place of fifth-year swingman Jalen Hudson. The new-look combination didn't click on the offensive end right away, but it positively swarmed the Cardinal on defense in opening a 21-point first-half lead. Along the way, the first sub in the game was sophomore guard Deaundrae Ballard. Then came freshman wing Keyontae Johnson. Then third-year sophomore forward Dontay Bassett. Hudson, the team's scoring leader last season and preseason All-Southeastern Conference selection, eventually got in the game, but went scoreless in a UF career-low seven minutes.
Bottom line: It was the hardest the team had played in its five games of this young season, and it ended with a thorough 72-49 victory that had White in a far better mood on Day 2 of this tournament in paradise.
"We were a different team," White said. "It feels good, I've got to be honest with you."
The win moved the Gators (3-2) into Friday's fifth-place game to face Butler (4-1) at 9:30 p.m. The Bulldogs trounced Middle Tennessee 84-53 in the bracket's late game.
Even the Florida bench was more energetic during Thursday night's rout of Stanford.
Ballard scored a career-best 19 points off the bench, raining in a trio of 3-pointers. Senior guard KeVaughn Allen scored 13 points, while Locke posted 11 points, including three 3-balls of his own, plus two rebounds and two assists over 21 minutes in his first collegiate start.
"We needed this a lot," Locke said. "Coach talks a lot about culture, and we had a talk [Wednesday] that I feel brought the guys more together. We were more accountable and that was a big culture step."
Added White: "I wanted to put my five most competitive guys on the court and see what happened."
The Gators (3-2) shot nearly 52 percent for the game, including 7-for-15 from the 3-point line (46.7 percent), but it was what they put on tape defensively that allowed White to go to bed feeling a little bit better (if only for one night) about this team. UF allowed just five first-half field goals — the Cardinal shot 21.7 percent and missed nine of 10 shots from the 3-point line — and built a 32-13 margin at the break, as Ballard led the way with 12 points.
"It was us coming together," Ballard said. "It was energy, wanting to play for each other, and seeing your brother succeed more than yourself."
It wasn't perfect and certainly was not beautiful from the start, as the Gators led just 2-0 at the first media timeout. White, however, could not have been more pleased with what he got from his guys from the jump, nor how they continued bringing energy despite starting 1-for-8 from the floor.
"There are instances when teams can start defensively with a really high level of intensity, but if the shots are not falling for you it's hard to sustain that intensity," White said. "We didn't blink. Our guys continued to guard at a high level and then shots started to fall for us."
They started to fall for Stanford (2-3), also. The Cardinal shot 55 percent in the second half and hit seven 3-pointers, but Florida answered with nearly 59 percent overall and made four of seven 3s after the break and led by as many as 28. Stanford never got closer than 16.
UF guard Deaundrae Ballard drives and scores over Cardinal forward Lucas Kisunas in the second half.
Senior forward Kevarrius Hayes had seven point, eight rebounds and several nose-dives for loose balls that defined the night. Freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard had another solid outing of eight points, three rebounds, five assists, two steals and just two turnovers.
"Coach says all the time, do the things you're supposed to do, and you'll get more minutes," Locke said. "You see the outcome."
What the Gators heard the night before wasn't pleasant, but obviously it resonated with some guys. And then some.
"I took it like a man. I guess all of us did, with the way we responded," Ballard said. "I went back to the room, thought about it, slept on it, woke up and said, 'What happened [against Oklahoma], we got to fix it.' "
Nothing is fixed. But one game, things were patched.
"It's so early and we're sitting here with a ways to go — just like Stanford, just like the team we'll play [Friday]," White said. "But to watch my guys play that hard is rewarding. I'm very proud of our effort."
