Next-Day Takeaway

NEXT-DAY TAKEAWAY
Georgia 72, Florida 69 (OT)
Three leftover thoughts from Wednesday's home loss.

1) To foul or not to foul? That is the question. For many, be it a coach on the sidelines or on the couch, it's not even a question. The basketball-watching world is full of hardcore believers who think, without question, that when up by three points in the final second, and on defense, you foul. Period. That was the situation Florida was in Wednesday night against Georgia. The Gators did very little right down the stretch against the Bulldogs — including the failure to execute a simple inbounds pass — but the defense on UGA's final possession in regulation really summed up the end-of-game foibles. Georgia ran its high screen "horns" action and got open shots against the UF defense several times during the game. On the final possession, the Gators were supposed to execute a switch, with UF guard Chris Chiozza stepping up to prevent the pass to forward Yante Maten, and UF center Kevarrius Hayes rolling back into the lane with forward Pape Diatta, who dove to the basket off the screen. Instead, both Hayes and Chiozza went with Diatta, a miscue that could have been prevented simply with better communication in the moment. That flash sequence created enough space for Maten, who had made a 3-pointer just 10 second earlier to cut a six-point lead in half, to catch, square and let fly another 3-ball, as Chiozza was late on the close-out. Bam. Tie game. So why not foul as soon as the ball is thrown in bounds and limit the Bulldogs to free throws? Because, Coach Mike White said, the Gators had been so bad at boxing out at the free-throw line, with Georgia offensive-rebounding three missed free throws earlier in the game, including two one-and-one front ends. And if the Bulldogs had made both free throws, the Gators would have been faced with that in-bound situation again, and who knows how that would have gone? Bottom line: Whatever the UF coaches decided to do and whatever the players tried to do in those final, frantic seconds did not work. Second guess away, folks. Who knows if a different strategy would have been executed any better? In the end, the result was one of the most inconceivable Florida losses since the Miami game (See Rodriguez, Angel) in 2014.

2) Georgia's defense, clearly, has Jalen Hudson's number. Florida's scoring leader went into the game averaging 15.7 points per outing, but went scoreless for the first time in a Florida uniform. Hudson missed his three field-goal attempts (two from the arc) and both free-throw tries, as well. In 22 minutes, he had four rebounds, two assists and two turnovers, including the pivotal travel call with just under 15 seconds left that set up Georgia and Maten for the game-tying shot. Two weeks ago, Hudson had a tough night in Athens, as well, when he went 3-for-14 on his way to nine points. So in two cracks at the Bulldogs, Hudson made just three of 17 shots (17.6 percent). When he doesn't get going, the Gators have trouble getting going. Of course, the same can be said about Chiozza, who went 2-for-14 in the game. In his last three home games, Chiozza is just 5-for-28 from the floor (17.8 percent), with 14 assists and seven turnovers. This item is not to pick on two of UF's best players. Even they'd admit they didn't play well. The fact the Gators were in control of the game with virtually nothing from those two offensively speaks to the contributions of KeVaughn Allen (19 points) and Mike Okauru (14 points) off the bench. Down the stretch, though, nobody played well (how 'bout that 1-for-6 start from the free-throw line in overtime), with the exception of forward Egor Koulechov. He scored eight of his 19 points in the final 2:36, and at one point gave his team a seven-point lead with 1:26 to play, and put the Gators (seemingly) in position to win.

3) Georgia is in a tie for 10th-place in the Southeastern Conference standings. South Carolina and Ole Miss are tied for last place, along with one other team. The Gators are a combined 1-4 against those teams this season, as opposed to 5-1 against the eight teams in seventh place or better (of which the Gators are one). Vanderbilt is that other last-place team. Florida is at Vandy on Saturday. After that, the Gators play at No. 18 Tennessee (alone in second place), host No. 10 Auburn (first place), go to Alabama (tied for third place, having already crushed UF in Gainesville), and finish against Kentucky at home. Florida is 17-9 overall, tied for third with Bama and Missouri at 8-5, and face one of the toughest schedules in the country the last two weeks of the regular season (four games vs. Top 31 RPI opponents). Not a lot more needs to be said about the importance of winning Saturday — at a place where the Gators have won just once since 2012.

Gators Calendar

Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Chris Chiozza

Kevarrius Hayes

Jalen Hudson

Egor Koulechov

Mike Okauru

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