GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Mike White warned his Florida players the last few days of the pending distractions that surely would rear themselves as Saturday night's nostalgic homecoming and "Billy Donovan Court" celebration closed in on his team. Their focus had to be completely on Vanderbilt. The stakes were too high to demand anything less. 

"There were a lot of things going on," sophomore shooting guard Noah Locke said. "We had to win the game." 

The Gators did their part, racing to a 29-point first-half lead and finishing off Vanderbilt with an 84-66 victory at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. As for those distractions, well, they weren't limited to the run-up to tipoff.

Take the under-12 timeout in the second half, for example. That was when the parade of Donovan's former players — among them Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Bradley Beal and Dorian Finney-Smith — filed onto their coach's newly christened court to take a bow. On the UF bench, White was talking to his team about finishing strong. 

"I looked up and saw Chris Chiozza in our huddle," White said afterward of the Florida all-time assists leader and current member of the Brooklyn Nets. "We almost called a play for him." 

Chiozza's heroics weren't needed because Locke's hot shooting hand helped stake the Gators (16-9, 8-4), winners of four of the previous five, to their big early lead. Locke went 6-for-8 from distance, making four of five in the first half, on his way to scoring 19 points and improving his 3-point marksmanship in Southeastern Conference play to a staggering 51.9 percent. UF jumped to a double-digit lead just over 11 minutes in and used a run of nine straight points, with Locke hitting a pair of 3s, to open a 21-point cushion with five minutes to go — holding the Commodores (8-16, 1-11) to just 5-for-23 shooting (21.7 percent) through the first 20 minutes — and basically took all the game dramatics away and left matters to the evening's guest of honor.
 
Grad-transfer forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. had 15 points and five assists, while sophomore forward Keyontae Johnson was good for 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals, despite spending most of the opening period in foul trouble. Backup forward Omar Payne, with his best and most energetic performance in weeks, had five points, five rebounds and three blocked shots in 13 first-half minutes.  

When the final horn sounded, UF had shot nearly 52 percent from the floor and 58 from the 3-point line, the first time this season the Gators had been plus-50 in both statistics the same game. 

"Honestly, we were fired up from the jump tonight," said freshman guard Tre Mann, who scored seven points off the bench, including a 3-ball at the first-half buzzer that was followed by a point and nod to Beal, who was seated in the second row at mid-court. "Coach White told us that we had to get all the outside stuff out of the way and nothing else mattered but winning the game." 

UF led 48-19 after a feel-good first half that gave way to an appearance at intermission by Donovan, now coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder and with a couple days off for the NBA's All-Star Weekend. Donovan spoke to the crowd for about three minutes, from the heart, and received a resounding ovation before turning matters back over to his successor. 
 
The Gators finished what they started, though the Commodores didn't go down without a fight. Vandy trailed by 32 with 10 minutes left, but shot 56 percent in the second half, including 8-for-13 from distance, with guard Saben Lee going for game highs of 23 points and seven rebounds and outscoring UF 47-36 for the period. And that was after Commodores coach Jerry Stackhouse was ejected with 22 seconds to go in the first period for protesting a no-call.

Just in time to watch the halftime ceremony.  

"It all kind of snowballed for us," Stackhouse said. "A lot of excitement and a lot of energy for what was going, and rightfully so. Billy Donovan is a good guy." 

Ultimately, Donovan had his day and the Gators got their victory. 

Perfect way to honor the icon, right? 

"I won't go that far," White deadpanned. 

The current UF coach still was a little irritated with his team's defense in the second half, but, frankly, that was a conversation that could wait. 

"I'm just so glad, on a night the University of Florida and Gator Nation is honoring Billy Donovan that we were able to get a win. Absolutely," White said. "This was a big night for our athletic department and Coach's legacy, so for us to win this game was really big. I'm glad we played so well the first 20.''

The second 20? That'll be a Sunday and Monday topic.