Next-Day Takeaway

NEXT-DAY TAKEAWAY
Florida 73, LSU 64 6
Three leftover thoughts from Wednesday's home win.

1) You heard about it Wednesday night, and upon further review the "next-day" theme was no different. The Gators played harder against LSU than they had (arguably) at any time during the Southeastern Conference season — and it showed. On both ends. Junior guard Jalen Hudson, the team's leading scorer, is always aggressive with the ball. This time, he was noticeably more active on the defensive end, as far as sliding his feet, dodging screens and challenging shots. He also had nine rebounds, which was one off his season high. Hudson's energy was contagious. It spread across the players on the floor and even spilled over onto the bench. Funny how that works. The energy was contagious in the home loss to Alabama four nights earlier — but in a bad way. The challenge for this group is to take this new-found charge on the road and do it two games in a row, because there's no mystery how hard South Carolina, losers of four straight, will play Saturday.

2) Sophomore forward Keith Stone has had bigger offensive games. Like the time he hit four 3s at Texas A&M. Or scored a career-high 23 at Ole Miss by getting to the free-throw 18 times. Stone had 15 points against the Tigers and they were highly efficient points. He hit five of his eight shots, but only one was a 3. He heeded the advice of his coaches and kept things simple. He shot faked when defenders ran at him. He passed it when they guarded him. He did not try to get fancy when driving the ball (although he still needs to work on finishing through contact and securing the basketball). He moved better on defense and took a charge. Stone made a lot of good decisions and, mostly, made the right plays when the ball was in his hands. Sometimes making the right play is better than making a shot.

Backup guard Mike Okauru (0), who scored just one point over the previous six games, came off the bench to pitch in nine against the tigers.

3) Against Alabama, every Florida player that checked into the game — all 10 — registered a plus-minus scores below zero. Against LSU, all six of the Gators' first rotational players were in the plus range, led by Hudson at plus-22 and center Kevarrius Hayes at plus-16. Backup freshman guard Mike Okauru registered a team-low minus-12, yet had one of his best games of the season with nine points and an assist in 17 minutes. Okauru hit four of seven shots, one of his three attempts from deep, and did a decent job defensively, which was the element of his game that had reduced his minutes of late. He had not hit a field goal the previous six games. The fact he was on the floor while the Tigers so thoroughly outscored the Gators was more a quirk than a reflection on Okauru's impact on the game. Example: He was out there when Hudson and KeVaughn Allen both had "pick-6" turnovers in one of LSU's two second-half 6-0 mini-runs of less than one minute, both of which kept the Tigers in the game when the Gators were threatening to break things open. The UF, remember, was outscored 29-1 in the Alabama loss. Florida reserves pitched in 16 points against LSU, and that was with freshman guard Deaundrae Ballard getting a DNP. Better.

Gators Calendar

Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Deaundrae Ballard

Kevarrius Hayes

Jalen Hudson

Mike Okauru

Keith Stone

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