As they deal with attrition in the front court, the Gators will lean on another and ask for contributions up and down the bench, as they did in Saturday's comeback victory over Oklahoma State.
Adjusting On the Fly
Tuesday, February 1, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
COLUMBIA, Mo. — His team had wrapped a routine free-throw shooting drill Tuesday at 3:55 p.m., when Florida coach Mike White called for a huddle at midcourt. Once they players gathered around they got the news that Wednesday night's Southeastern Conference road game at Missouri, scheduled for 9 p.m., had been moved to 3 p.m., due to a blizzard bearing down on the Midwest.
Practice was over, they were told. Be ready to leave for the airport in an hour.
"Let's do it," White said.
In other words, time to do some more adjusting on the fly. Only this time, off the court.
Anyone that might roll their eyes or shrug at the loss of six hours of preparation and travel recovery time in the run-up to a road game at the furthest SEC outpost, well, doesn't understand sports. It's a huge disruption. But, conversely, anyone in the UF basketball program that spends time worrying or complaining about the interruption in routine is doing their team a disservice. Maybe the timing for such a development — with the Gators (13-8, 3-5) and Tigers (8-12, 2-5) resuming SEC play at Mizzou Arena — is ideal for the visitors.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
UF, after all, adapted pretty well to overcome some awfully bad circumstances Saturday when it rallied from 16 down to beat Oklahoma State in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge back in Gainesville, doing so by turning to three players who'd spent most of their seasons watching from the far end of the bench. The Gators were struggling to score, which isn't altogether rare for this group, but their defense was abysmal, which was way out of character, as the Cowboys shot 63.5 from the floor and 70.0 from the free-throw line. White was so disgusted with what he saw that — after labeling his players "soft" in the halftime locker room — he left a trio of starters on the bench for the second half in favor of 6-foot-9 junior-college transfer forward Tuongthach Gatkek, plus freshman guard Elijah Kennedy and sophomore wing Niels Lane.
Collectively, the threesome was averaging 4.4 points and 1.9 rebounds per game, with 21 DNPs this season.
"We got off to a bad start and that wasn't us," Gatkek said. "We weren't playing defense."
White was looking for something, anything, from anybody. All the trio did was redirect their teammates on a course to win the game.
"Obviously, defense was lacking in the first half," Lane said. "I tried to go out there and give it all the energy I had and give that energy to my teammates, as well."
Sophomore wingNiels Lane (44) skies to block a shot, one of his two swats, during Saturday's victory against the Cowboys in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
That's exactly what they did, as UF regulars were eventually thrown back into the mix and immediately showed what Gatkek, Lane and Kennedy provided was infectious. The Gators went on a pair of pivotal runs, took the lead, took control, and closed out an 81-72 win by holding the Cowboys to just 29-percent shooting in the second half, and just one 3-pointer.
"We knew we had to shake something up," White said. "Sometimes, and you hate to admit it as a coach, you're trying to tick a guy off or make a statement. 'Let's just throw this lineup out there and maybe it'll ignite something.' And it did."
He'll throw more lineups out there against the Tigers; in what order, no one knows. The Gators again will be without 6-11 Colin Castleton, their leading scorer and rebounder, and have lost 6-11 Jason Jitoboh for the season to eye surgery. If nothing else, White may have more of an inclination to go to a little deeper down the bench for his rotation, if he feels he has to. The guys on that end answered when he called.
One thing for certain is the team, once again, will be undersized up front. How the Gators combat that — what they're forced to do; what White believes he has to do — will be determined during the game.
In real time.
On the fly.
"I talk about trial and error a lot, especially in these types of scenarios, circumstances that have been dealt to us," White said Tuesday. "We'll see what works, what doesn't work and we'll make adjustments. … We can find different ways. Other guys get opportunities. It's one of the beauties of the game of basketball. There's a bunch of different ways to do it, and we're searching a little bit, right now."
