UF coach Mike White knows the onus is on him to get his team, which has led all four of its SEC games in the final 10 minutes, to play more poised in the final minutes.
Closing Time Is Now For Gators
Friday, January 18, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
ATHENS, Ga. — At one point during Thursday's practice, Mike White's interrupted action between possessions of a drill, obviously encouraged by the energy and effort being emptied on the floor, and put a passionate plea to his Florida basketball players — at the top of his lungs — to maintain their intensity.
"We're close!" White shouted their way. "We're close to being a good team!"
They'd be even closer if they could close.
On Saturday, the Gators (9-7, 1-3) are on the Southeastern Conference road for the second straight game, and if they happen to be in tight fight with host Georgia (9-7-1-3) at Stegeman Coliseum down the stretch — and their track record suggests that could very well happen — watch the finish at your own risk. Who knows? At this point, White and his staff might even be temped to look away.
"Mental toughness. Discipline. Preparation. It's a combination of all those things. And leadership, starting with me," White said, when asked what's gone wrong in the money minutes of the game for a group that has led late, sometimes big, in all four league games and has just one win to show for it. "Defensively, we've been — outside of the last four minutes of the first SEC games, and the first game of the season — we've been elite."
Ah, but what of those waning minutes?
To review:
* South Carolina 71, Florida 69— The Gators led the Gamecocks at home by 14 points inside the 11-minute mark, and by 10 with just over eight minutes remaining, and got outscored 18-6 the rest of the way. They lost on a 90-foot baseball pass and layup with 3.5 seconds to go.
* Florida 57, Arkansas 51 — The Gators led by 15 with under seven minutes to go on the road, but needed two Razorback misses inside 25 seconds left, plus free throws from KeVaughn Allen, to seal the win. They were outscored 15-6 over those final seven minutes.
* Tennessee 78, Florida 67— The Gators led by three at home with just over six minutes remaining, and trailed by just two with 90 seconds to go when Noah Locke missed a go-ahead 3-pointer in transition. Ultimately, though, UF was outscored 18-4 in last half-dozen minutes.
* Mississippi State 71, Florida 68 — The Gators led by five on the road with two and half minutes to go, but got outscored 10-2 the rest of the way, including the dagger, game-winning, length-of-the-court, uncontested layup by guard Quinndary Weatherspoon with 3.6 seconds left.
See a pattern developing?
Freshman guard Noah Locke gets in a stance against Mississippi State guard Quinndary Weatherspoon, who hit the game-winning shot inside four seconds Wednesday night to beat the Gators 71-68.
The day after the disappointing trip to Starkville, the UF support staff crunched the numbers and came away with some problematic (if not downright alarming) data relative to the team in crunch time. In the final four minutes of UF's four SEC games, the Gators have hit just four of 21 field-goal attempts (that's 19 percent), including just 1-for-11 from the 3-point line (9 percent). At the other end, one of the nation's best statistical defenses has allowed those four opponents to make 12 of 25 shots (48 percent), including three of nine from long distance (33 percent).
That's how leads are blown and games are lost.
Three weeks into the conference season, it's time to halt this troubling trend. Actually, it was time to stop it the last game; and the one before that; and the one before that. Those SEC ships, however, have sailed. The SS Georgia is next.
Said freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard: "I think we just have to always play to win and not play not to lose in the clutch and make big plays when they matter."
Sounds simple enough, but UF has some built-in issues on offense.
Heading into the season, White felt really good about his offense because he had back Allen, one of the most prolific scorer's in school history, for a senior season, He had back Jalen Hudson, his fifth-year senior and leading scorer from a season ago (15.5 points per game), a guy seemingly fearless when it came to taking shots, both on the perimeter or attacking the paint. And also fourth-year junior Keith Stone, who after leading the starting unit in 3-point percentage last season (.424), plus an impressive summer of development, was ready to take the next step as an inside/out scorer and rebounder.
Well, Allen got off to a slow start (scoreless in the season opener), but has picked up his play of late (15.8 points in SEC play), but is still being asked to be more assertive; still bypassing scoring opportunities when plays are called his way. Hudson? He's at just 6.3 points per game and shooting 28.6 from the floor (down from .455) and 21.9 from 3 (down from .404). Stone? He's yet to make a field goal of any kind (0-for-10) in SEC play.
It's a truly a stunning development, when considering some of the performances these players put on tape last season. Everyone knows what they're capable of, yet with each missed shot, it's as if another layer of confidence is peeled away.
"We've got some guys that once they hit a shot, their focus improves, their toughness in scenarios where their attention level changes," White said. "We preach about that to them because that's not how we should play."
The Gators talk all the time about how they can't control whether shots go in, but they can control how hard they play and defend. For a team that currently checks in No. 7 in the nation in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com, the late-game breakdowns are as troublesome as they are uncharacteristic.
UF shot just 42 percent at Mississippi State, but they made 48 percent in the second half, got a bunch of open looks that didn't go down and rang up 18 assists (the second-most this season). It was one of the team's best offensive showings of the season. The Gators lost the game on defense, their strength, which made the flight home late Wednesday all the more disheartening.
So now White is reminding them how oh-so-close they are to being a good (really good) basketball team. And there's still time — plenty of it with 14 league games left — for it to show up where it matters.
They need to finish. They need to close the close ones.
"We can all lose our minds and just talk about how unbelievably negative of an experience this is for all of us," White said. "But, on the other hand, you can say, 'Guys, we could easily be sitting here as a top-10 team in the country if we would execute down the stretch, have a little bit more swagger to us [and] make plays when they need to be made, because we've been really close to beating some of the best teams in the country. We've been really close to winning on the road against quality opponents, at home against high-level opponents. I mean, we're close. We're very close. I hope that that's what our guys are thinking."
