Hoops Hodgepodge 9
The Florida bench's collective expression tells the story of Saturday night's letdown of a loss at home against a Georgia team that came in with 14 losses in 15 conference games.
Photo By: Cindy Lu
Sunday, March 3, 2019

Hoops Hodgepodge 9

Chris Harry
Chris Harry / Senior Writer
A scattershot and miscellaneous look at Florida basketball following the ninth weekend of SEC basketball.
THREE-POINT WEEK IN REVIEW 

TAKE A BOW
Give freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard credit for his near-flawless performance Wednesday night at Vanderbilt and fighting through back spasms Saturday night, but any sort of praise following the team's depressing home performance would be nothing but platitudes. The Florida coaches and players were to be commended for going to Vandy and taking care of business at a venue that had been historically unkind to everyone in the locker room, maintaining focus and extending their winning streak to five games against an opponent that was winless in conference play. But all the good from that trip was wiped away by the bad from the Saturday no-show at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. The players were warned that Georgia, despite those nine straight defeats, was not just formidable, but dangerous given its run of four consecutive last-second, last-possession losses to likely NCAA Tournament-bound teams. Those warnings were not heeded and it just may cost the Gators dearly. 
Georgia's 6-foot-11 Nick Claxton (33) used his length to cause a lot of problems for the Gators, on both ends of the floor.
OF CONCERN 
It's remarkable how narratives change on a dime this time of year. The Gators had admirably battled back and put themselves in great position for an NCAA Tournament at-large berth heading into Saturday, where a win at home over a team seated next to last in the Southeastern Conference would have been the 18th of the year, guaranteed the Gators a winning record in the league, plus moved them into sole possession of fourth place in the standings. Poof! Gone! After an uptick in offensive execution of late, Florida struggled to score against the statistically worse defensive team in the league. Defensively, the Gators, basically, were dominated by one guy, as 6-foot-11 forward Nick Claxton scored a career-high 25 points, hit nine of his 12 shots, both 3-point attempts and all five of his free throws. UF, one of the best statistical defenses in the country, had no answer for his his length and diverse skills set. And when the Gators needed to stops over the final five minutes of a mostly one-possession game, the Bulldogs connected on their last five field-goal attempts. Now look at the situation: It's entirely possible Florida needs to win one of the next two games, both against hungry, highly ranked teams trying to win the league championship, else go to the SEC Tournament needing to win as many as two games just to catch the eye of the NCAA selection committee. Florida's next chance (read on) will come at home, but these Gators don't feed off the O'Dome like past UF teams. In fact, Florida's 4-4 record in SEC games at home will be the program's worst since going 3-5 in 1996-97, the first season under Billy Donovan. 

GET READY
Forget all NETs, RPIs, BPIs, NCAAs, NITs or any other combination of letters used this time of year. The only three letters that matter now are WIN. The Gators undermined their NET standing with the loss to Georgia, falling from 28th down to 35th and suffered a second ugly "Quadrant-3" home defeat at the worst possible time. No need to crunch numbers, just get need to results. Florida plays No. 13 LSU (24-5, 14-2) at home for "Senior Night" on Wednesday, then goes to No. 4 Kentucky (24-5, 13-3) Saturday. Obviously, both will be monumental challenges, as the Tigers are tied with Tennessee for first in the SEC standings and are trying to win their first regular-season conference title in 10 years. What should be (and has been in the past) a crazed home environment will be challenged by spring break this week, while LSU will be looking to exact revenge for UF's road win at Baton Rouge two weeks earlier. In the past, the Gators have been able to lean on the home court, but the Gators have sleep-walked through too many O'Dome dates this season. What will this group do on its final night together in front of a fraction of the Rowdy Reptiles with its postseason hopes (likely) on the line? As for the difficulty of yet another regular-season finale at Rupp Arena? That should speak for itself.  


CHARTING THE GATORS
Ten visits over 22 years is a long time to wait to experience a win at a particular venue, but that's how long it took Mike White to conquer his Memorial Coliseum white whale. White played Vanderbilt on the road twice as a point guard at Ole Miss in the 1990s. Two losses. He faced the Commodores four times as an assistant for two different head coaches at Ole Miss. Four losses. As the head coach at Florida, White was 0-3 at Memorial, losing those games by a combined six points, before going there Wednesday, leading wire-to-wire and leaving with a lopsided 16-point win. For context: White is 2-6 in his lifetime at Rupp Arena. Now he's 1-9 at Memorial. Maybe the sharp-dressed young man in the below tweet should get an assist. 
Mike vs Memorial Over the Years 
Date Outcome The Buzz
Jan. 18, 1997 L 67-64 White was a sophomore who scored 4.4 pts, dished 3.4 assists.
Jan. 2, 1999 L 79-64 White (5.2 ppg), Rebels were on their way to a third straight NCAA berth.
Jan. 29, 2005 L 73-51 White was in his first year as assistant at his alma mater, as team went 14-17 under Coach Rod Barnes, who was fired at season's end.
Jan. 27, 2007 L 85-80 Enter Andy Kennedy, who retained White from previous staff; Rebels went 21-13, but fell to Clemson in NIT. 
Feb. 7, 2009 L 71-61 A week after upsetting No. 24 Kentucky at home, three days after beating rival Mississippi State, Rebels went down in Nashville.
Jan. 19, 2011 L 81-74 Fourth of four straight Ole Miss losses to open SEC season.
Jan. 26, 2016 L 60-59 KeVaughn Allen scored 11 points, including a trio of 3s, in the final 31 seconds to make the score close. 
March 4, 2017 L 73-71 Gators blew a 12-point lead, as 7-foot nemesis Luke Kornett scored six of his 24 points in final two minutes, including decisive free throws with 12.1 seconds left. 
Feb. 17, 2018 L 71-68 Gators blew 11-point lead with 13 minutes to go, as Commodores hit six 3s over 5-minute span, plus 15-16 second-half free throws. James Roberson led Vandy with 26 points.
Feb. 27, 2019 W 71-55 Andrew Nembard (7-for-8 from floor) and friends got their coach off the snide. 


UF ALUM UPDATE
CATCHING UP WITH ... JOAKIM NOAH  
Joakim Noah, 34, is enjoying a renaissance in Memphis. 

Joakim Noah's two-plus seasons in New York were an abject disaster, culminated by a heated verbal altercation with Coach Jeff Hornacek. In 2017-18, Noah appeared in just seven games for the Knicks, who signed him in the summer of 2016 to a four-year, $72 million contract.

In October, Noah was released, with the Knicks using what is known as the stretch-provision waiver, which allows teams to save cap space from a terminated contract. Noah, though, still had $38 million left on his deal and eventually agreed to buyout terms that freed up to sign with the Memphis Grizzlies in early December. After averaging 12.6 minutes a game in January, the 34-year-old Noah flourished with more floor time in February and played some of his best basketball in years.  

How 'bout 12.6 points, 8.0 rebounds and 22.6 minutes per game for the month? How 'bout four double-doubles in February? How 'bout 59.7 percent from the floor? Over the last three weeks, Noah had outings of 19 points and 14 rebounds against New Orleans, 22 points and 11 rebounds against the Los Angeles Clippers, 14 points and 12 boards against the LA Lakers, and 12 points and seven rebounds in Saturday night's win at Dallas.  The Grizzlies aren't very good, but if they come on TV in the coming weeks UF fans will have a reason to tune in. 

What Gator doesn't love this guy?

Good luck, Jo! 



PERSPECTIVE POLICE BEAT
(i.e. "Twitter Patter")

Coaches are held accountable. Players are held accountable. Even senior writers are held accountable. This space is dedicated to holding the fans (and fan boys) on Twitter accountable. At times, we'll also recognize those who "get it" and acknowledge those who offer entertaining social media fodder, or (God forbid) the proper perspective. [Note: If you're completely unreasonable and wonder why you don't show up here, it's probably because you've been muted or blocked, and thus in "Perspective Prison." I'm the cop, judge, jury and warden of that legal system, by the way.]


 
The "Lemmings of Loss" live for these moments when they can crawl out of their holes and hurl themselves off the cliffs. As for the coach, he always points a finger at himself. I guarantee he took this one harder than anyone.  


 
Not here, you didn't. A 17th win at SEC-winless Vandy was never going to be the shoe-in game.

 
Few things here: 1) During that "drought," the Gators actually were doing some things they didn't do earlier in the season, namely attacking the paint and creating free-throw opportunities, which is probably why they were even in the game. 2) Kentucky (pretty good team, right?) went 10 minutes without scoring a field goal in its blowout loss a few hours earlier at Tennessee. Earlier in the week, Villanova (pretty good, right?) went nine minutes without scoring, finished with 54 points and lost its third straight game. Droughts happen; 3) Yes, you could use a few more followers. I believe there's an app for that. 


 
This is an undisputed fact.


 
Actually, I have no idea who you are, Mr. Chainz. And I seriously doubt ever "told you" the Gators don't need big men.


 
This was post-Vanderbilt (and pre-Georgia), of course, but I appreciated the element of sanity. ... Who let you in here, anyway?

 
And this, too, was after winning a fifth straight and a full three days before any reason to be pouty and in your feels.


 
And we're here to oblige. Thank you for taking it in the spirit it's intended. 


 
The lack of a backdrop is not the big a deal. It's all in the approach, the focus, the process. The Gators had all those things at Vandy -- and left them in Nashville. 


 
Why, yes it is. SEC Tournament last year. 
(See Gafford, Daniel)
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