UF coach Mike White has a chance Tuesday night against his alma mater of Ole Miss to win his 100th game with the Gators, but his team better bring more focus and bounce than Saturday night's flat performance at Missouri.
Humbled Gators Look to Bounce Back
Tuesday, January 14, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It's called "Dry O," and the Florida Gators, like every other basketball team in the country, drill it daily. It's five-on-none. Skeleton offense. Running sets without defenders. Saturday afternoon, during UF's shoot-around about six hours before its game that night at Missouri, the team was flat, a little bit sloppy, and a lot of bit inattentive.
When a player ran the wrong way during the "Dry O" segment, Mike White snapped. He'd seen enough and his words bellowed through the empty Mizzou Arena.
WHAT ARE WE DOING? WE'VE WON TWO GAMES, SO WE GOT IT ALL FIGURED OUT. IS THAT IT?
WAKE UP!
They, of course, did not. The Tigers did a wire-to-wire wax job on their visitors that night, destroying the Gators, 91-75, by dominating virtually every statistical category. Missouri shot better than 61 percent for the game, 63 from the 3-point line, limited UF to just 31-percent shooting in taking a stunning 51-36 halftime lead, and eventually outscored the Gators by a walloping 40-14 in the paint. All this from a foe that came into the game near the bottom of the league statistics in key offensive categories.
The Gators (10-5, 2-1) haven't had a bunch of time to process the gutting; not after having to stay overnight in Columbia, Mo., due to weather, arriving home early Sunday afternoon, then basically heading straight to the practice court to begin prep for Tuesday night's visit from Ole Miss (9-6, 0-2) at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. White tried to convey to his players what they were walking into last time out in facing a desperate Mizzou team and a program (and coach) with a reputation for predator-like defense.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
With a couple nights to sleep (or not) on the effort, White said it may have been the worst all-around defensive display by one of his teams in his nine-season head-coaching career. Forward Keyontae Johnson and the Gators, basically, were never in the game Saturday at Missouri.
"If the game was still going on, they'd probably still be making 3s on us," White said Monday. "We're going to get after guys today and if we see more of the same then we'll get more of the same results against Ole Miss."
The practice a couple hours later was better; much better, actually. Whether those same results show up against the Rebels, led by high-scoring senior shooting guard Breein Tyree, well, that'll be up to the Gators. Not that shoot-arounds (good or bad) determine outcomes, but they are, in essence, practices and require attention to detail that will prove beneficial when the ball is thrown up for real.
"We're pretty determined to do better," sophomore shooting guard Noah Locke said. "It's nothing that we haven't dealt with before. Just responding in the right way and coming back determined to get better."
Grad-transfer forward Kerry Blackshear Jr., the team's leading scorer and rebounder, sensed minutes into the Mizzou game that something was off with his team. The Tigers hit their first shot of the game, an open 3, and never trailed. They led by eight less than seven minutes in, by double digits eight minutes in, and the Gators never got closer than 10 the rest of the way. It was that lopsided.
"Our level of preparedness and getting hit in the mouth a little bit, so to speak, coming from that game, I think, is shaping how we're going to carry out the rest of the season," Blackshear said. "We definitely know that we're better than how we performed."
Everybody does, and in many ways that statement can apply to the entire season to date. But you are what your record says you are. Right now, UF is a team of mostly sophomores and freshmen, plus one outstanding grad-transfer, that has had wild bouts with inconsistency on both ends of the floor. How wild?
Under White, UF is a program that has prided itself on defense and often been criticized externally for its inability to score. Yes, it's early in the Southeastern Conference season, but the Gators rank currently first in the league in scoring offense (86.6 points per game) and last in the league in scoring defense (85.7). Those are "Bizarro World" numbers.
Chalk it up to experience, or maybe a lack thereof, perhaps. Statistically, according to KenPom.com's advance metrics, the Gators are the youngest team in the SEC (yes, younger than Kentucky) and rank 344th of the 353 Division I teams in that category.
The opponent, whoever it is, doesn't care. A lot of teams are young. Ten of the SEC's 14 teams are in the bottom of 100 in the KenPom experience category, including Missouri at 264th. Ole Miss is 265th.
"The refs don't give you three extra points because we're younger than the other team and say, 'Hey, let's start the game over because you guys weren't prepared very well and we didn't handle success very well getting off to a 2-0 [SEC] start.' Just got to grow up. That's it," White said. " Missouri beat us because they were the better team that night, hands down. … Our four vets – 'KJ' and our three sophomores – those guys have to play better, as well. We've all got to be better than that, period."
Starting with shoot-arounds, and going from there.
