Role definition and rotation minutes may start to become a little clearer, now that SEC play is here.
Gators Look for Butler Carryover in SEC Opener vs Gamecocks
Saturday, January 5, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators were really, really good the last time.
Exactly a week ago, UF and all its enigmatic issues took the floor against a solid, highly efficient and disciplined Butler bunch that had defeated the Gators barely a month earlier in the Bahamas. This time, Florida not only beat the Bulldogs, but battered them from the outset, scoring the game's first 21 points, building a lead that swelled to as many as 37, and handed a proud program a 77-43 defeat that marked its most lopsided loss in 25 years.
With a few days to process his team's best all-around performance of the year, UF coach Mike White had no problem putting that victory in the proper context.
"It was one game," White said Thursday. "We played very well for one game. If you're going to be a good team, you've got to do that in a bunch of games."
And especially in league games.
The task for the Gators (8-4, 0-0), winners of five of the previous six, now is to take the good of that one game — ideally, the energy and desire, plus shot-making and all-around defense — and roll into Saturday night's date against South Carolina (5-7, 0-0), loser of four of the previous five, in what will be the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center.
In the days leading up to Butler, the Gators had some inspired, bare knuckle-type practices that set a tone for the game. In the week since, however, practices haven't been great, and White warned his players during Friday's session at the O'Dome that they would pay for any such slippage against a Gamecocks squad that — despite being the lone SEC team with a losing record — will come in with plenty of fight and physicality to win on the road.
Like last year.
UF was riding high on Jan. 24, 2018, off to a 6-1 league start and fresh off just the 10th road win at Kentucky in program history. Enter USC, with just three wins in league play, and exit the Gamecocks, led then and now by fearsome forward Chris Silva, with a 77-74 win during which they basically dictated pace, play and outcome for the opening tip.
Jalen Hudson (3) and the Gators had a lot to jump up and down about in their 77-43 dismantling of Butler a week ago.
Regardless of what happened against Butler, it's unreasonable to think the Gators won't be plagued by some of the same issues that bogged them down in four non-conference defeats; those being mostly offensive, including lengthy scoring droughts.
"Still a work in progress, offensively," White said. "If this team is going to be good, individually, we have to figure out the eight, nine, 10 guys that we know we can count on night-in and night-out, and figure out how they can contribute to this team."
On that front, steps were taken against Butler, but whether the minutes distribution in that one provides a glimpse of the rotation ahead remains to be seen. Florida had 10 guys play double-digit minutes — and that was in a 34-point game. Backup guards Deaundrae Ballard and Mike Okauru played 11 and 10 minutes, respectively, while seldom-used center Isaiah Stokes played just two. The remaining eight available scholarship players logged at least 15.
One of the former was fifth-year senior guard Jalen Hudson, who came off the bench to score 11 points and grab seven rebounds in 20 minutes. It was the second straight game that Hudson reached double-figures after the team's leading scorer from a season ago spun through a six-game funk when he totaled just 18 points.
Hudson broke out of that slump by hitting four 3-pointers, scoring 14 points and taking home MVP honors in a blowout win over Florida Gulf Coast in the Orange Bowl Classic at Sunrise, Fla., just before Christmas. Guess how Hudson answered when asked about his performance after that one?
"It's just one game," he said.
Sound familiar?
The Butler game was a second straight solid effort, though, and something to further his confidence as things are about to get real now. For Hudson and his teammates.
"We all have a clean slate individually and we have a clean slate as a team," White said. "Maybe the intensity level is picked up just a little bit, though, as you think about it, talk about it, when you consider the fact that they've got a clean slate [and] we've got a clean slate. A bunch of battles around the corner. It's an exciting time."
