GAINESVILLE, Fla. — At the 14:11 mark of the first half Saturday night, Florida point guard
Andrew Nembhard picked up his second foul against Vanderbilt. Like the first, it was a push-off called on the offensive end. Unlike the first, Nembhard headed to the bench and would be there for the balance of the period. The Gators led by seven at the time.
Nembhard returned to the court to the start the second half. The UF lead was 22.
That's because the Gators, even when Nembhard was watching from the bench, continued the ball movement that served them so well three nights earlier in a key road win at Texas A&M when they shot 51.9 percent for the game and 42.6 from the 3-point line. Against the Commodores, those numbers were again 51.9 and 50.0 percent l, respectively, and Florida prevailed 84-66 for its fourth win over the previous five on a night when nine different players scored at least four points, and six tallied at least seven.
"It's great to see," Nembhard said Monday. "I think everybody plays better when we're moving the ball and playing together."
That is a fact and the Gators (16-9, 8-4) will need to maintain that way of thinking — that way of playing — Tuesday night when they take on Arkansas (16-9, 4-8) at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, as the team looks to gain momentum heading into the most difficult part of the Southeastern Conference schedule.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
One of the shortcomings of UF this season has been an inability consistently to hit open shots, but to a man, the Gators would agree the ball did not pop around the perimeter with the speed, conviction and commitment it has the last two games on the way to making 54 of 104 overall field-goal tries (.519) and 22 of 47 from deep (.468).
Those two-game digits helped move Florida to fourth overall in scoring offense (75.7 points per game) in league play. UF is first in both field-goal percentage (.461)
and 3-point percentage (.382) in SEC competition.
"We are trying to get everybody the ball," sophomore forward
Keyontae Johnson said. "We do it in practice and we try to carry it over in the game."
UF coach Mike White's team has combined to shoot 51.9 percent from the floor and 46.8 from the 3-point line the last two games.
Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of that movement has been sophomore shooting guard
Noah Locke, who in canning 11 of 18 from deep the last two games is now shooting a league-high 51.8 percent to lead the conference. Some of those looks of late have come in transition, which is a reflection of some decent defense, a phase of the game the Gators have been off and on with, even during their recent stretch of wins.
They'll need to be more on than off on that end against the Razorbacks, who have the SEC's top scorer in Mason Jones. But they'll also need to bring that passing game against a team that ranks first in the nation in 3-point field-goal percentage defense, allowing just 25.3 percent, and also leads the SEC in steals and turnovers forced.
"They're really athletic and they've got really good versatility defensively," Florida coach
Mike White said. "They can switch a lot of different spots. I think their front court guys are as quick and fast as any front court in our league. Good speed and quickness and length in the backcourt. They extend, they pressure you."
The Hogs are extremely aggressive in running shooters off the arc, but also speed up opponents with their run-and-jump traps, both in the full and halfcourt.
"You just have to move the ball a lot," Locke said. "Because they run and jump, it can give us a lot of advantages. if they're going to trap like that, we'll have some 3-on-2 and 2-on-1s. Just keep moving it don't take a lot of selfish shots."
He nodded.
"Kind of like what we've been doing."
