OXFORD, Miss. — Teams that mIss shots on offense and assignments on defense find themselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard. That's basketball, and that's been the case for the Florida Gators in their defeats this season.
It's also been the case in couple of their victories.
UF's bad-half/good-half routine has produced two of the greatest comebacks in the program's basketball history; the rally from 21 down in the first half to defeat Alabama in double-over time Jan. 4, and Wednesday night's erasing of a 22-point second-half deficit against Georgia that eventually became an 81-75 victory. Both were unbelievable achievements, but not exactly recipes for success.
Afterward the win over the Bulldogs, the Florida players talked of the need to be more locked in and focused from the opening tip. Coach
Mike White spoke of a need for more maturity in the locker room.
"We're a unique team," White said Friday. "The make-up of team, the personality of our team, is that we can be emotional, the way that we react to each other at times. The way that we react to adversity, to the other team making a run, to officials. You name it. It's a really, really good group of guys, but we're not the most mature team. We've talked about that all year. We've got [immaturity]. We want to play with emotion, but we can't be emotional. At times we're very emotional, and that shows. We can give up a big lead and we can come back when down big. That's not how you want to be, obviously. Is this team a little soft? Yeah. Emotional? Yeah. Immature? Yeah. But very, very resilient. We've got to continue to be resilient, but we've got to grow in other areas."
The sooner the better, as the Gators (14-8, 6-3) head out on a two-game Southeastern Conference road swing beginning Saturday at Ole Miss (11-11, 2-7), an opponent UF beat last month in Gainesville, albeit without its best player (shooting guard Breein Tyree, the No. 3 scorer in the league, and 6-foot-10, 240-pound forward Khadim Sy). Tyree, averaging 18.9 points per game, is coming off a 38-point eruption in a Wednesday waxing of South Carolina. He's going to make some shots and the palatial Pavilion at Ole Miss is going to get loud.
How will the Gators react when things get difficult?
More to the point, where will their heads be at tip-off?
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
"We just got to be better from start to finish," grad-transfer forward
Kerry Blackshear Jr. said. "Consistency is hard to maintain. Momentum is something that's hard to gain. It's just something we have to do better from start to finish."
Collectively, the Gators have had some heart-to-heart discussions of late focusing on peer accountability, and the need to know the guy next to you is going to do his job. Players have spoken candidly in the locker room in hopes of getting the team where it needs to be as a group.
"We talked about kind of regulating each other and regulating our emotions and stuff like that so, so I think it's been better the last week," said sophomore point guard
Andrew Nembhard, who was head of the comeback snake against UGA in scoring 19 of his career-high 25 points in the second half, including 11 of UF's final 12. "We can still improve, though."
A bunch.
More level-headed reactions to adversity (such as opponent's scoring runs, officials' calls and the like) is the next step in the Gators' growth.
In November, after winning the Charleston (S.C.) Classic, the Gators talked like they'd found a sweet spot to get them going. The next game, they sleep-walked for 38 minutes to bare escaped Marshall at home, then chased that one by geting stomped at Butler.
Ten days after the Butler beating, Florida destroyed Providence by 32 in Brooklyn, N.Y., with one of their best, most unselfish and crispest offensive outings of the season. The Gators were figuring were some stuff out. That was the takeaway … until shooting 35 percent and surrendering 50 percent in a loss to Utah State four days later in South Florida.
Last month, following the roar back against the Crimson Tide, the Gators talked as if they'd learned a lesson about readiness, being on edge and zeroed in from the start, doing so just in time for the SEC season. Two games later, they gave up 51 points in the first half at Missouri against a Tigers team ranked near the bottom of the league in scoring. UF lost 91-75. And itI was more of the same on the maturity front in the loss to Baylor. Yes, the Bears were the nation's No. 1 team, but they also were playing at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. They proved to be the tougher, more poised team, with an ability to shake off moments of mistakes and stare down UF and its home crowd. Same with Mississippi State three days after that, also at the O'Dome, when Florida led by 16 and lost.
So who are the real Gators as they enter the second half — and home stretch — of the SEC slate?
"Right now the real Gators are up and down, but I feel like that's our biggest thing; just consistency and playing for 40 minutes," Nembhard said. "If we can get to the second half with more consistency, we'll be a much better team when it comes to March."
Florida has won back-to-back games, but nothing about the victories (at Vanderbilt last weekend, then the rollercoaster ride against Georgia) has spelled any notion of consistency. If the Gators truly are going to become accountable to one another, whatever they mustered over the final 16 minutes against the Bulldogs needs to be bottled and distributed in Mississippi this weekend and again at Texas A&M next week. And so on.
Maturity and accountability not not only need to be fostered, those traits need to travel.
"For sure, road wins are hard to come by, no matter who it is," Blackshear said. "[Ole Miss is] a team that we've beat, but they're also gaining one of the best scorers in the country and their starting center, so we know we've got a challenge ahead of us. And I think coming off this win is good, but also we want to take the next step in our maturity."
