UF interim coach Al Pinkins during the Gators' 79-74 come-fromt-behind defeat of Iona in Wednesday night's NIT opener.
In the "Interim," Pinkins' Gators Advance in NIT
Thursday, March 17, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Billy Donovan went 0-7 against Rick Pitino in their coaching square-offs, with five of those losses coming during Donovan's 19 seasons at Florida.
So let the record (and record book) show that Al Pinkins, in an "interim" role and calling the game-day shots for the first time in his 19 seasons as a college assistant, became the first UF coach to finally take down the slick Hall of Famer of national-championship pedigree. He did on "Billy Donovan Court," too.
Roughly 76 hours after Coach Mike White, in an emotional, hastily-called team meeting told his UF players he was leaving for the vacant coaching post at Georgia, Pinkins and the Gators took the floor Wednesday for a National Invitational Tournament game. Never an easy task for a program used to being in that 68-team tournament known as "March Madness." They gave up some easy baskets early and trailed for most of the game, but ultimately banded together, stuck together and played much better together in rallying for a 79-74 victory over the Pitino-led Iona Gaels before a sparse-but-lively crowd at Exactech Arena.
The post-game mood in the locker room could just as easily been mistaken for the kind that accompanies wins in that other, more prestigious and preferred tournament. But this is the one the Gators are in and the decided to try and stick around a while.
"Best feeling I've had in a long time," Pinkins said afterward.
Senior forward Colin Castleton and graduate wing Phlandrous Fleming each scored 18 points, with Fleming hitting a couple free throws with 32 seconds left to help salt the game away. The Gaels led by eight early in the second half, but the Gators used a series of quick-hitting runs to close the margin, got their first lead of the game with less than 10 minutes to play, then built a cushy enough margin of their own to hold off a late Iona push.
Phlandrous Fleming Jr. runs out for a first-half slam on his way to 18 points.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Gators, the last the heart-breaking, buzz-beating overtime defeat against Texas A&M in second round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament last week, a loss that scuttled any hopes of a fifth straight NCAA Tournament berth. Instead of moping around, Florida (20-13) is moving on into the NIT's second round and a road date against Xavier (19-13) at Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon.
"We've been through a lot this year. This whole year has been about resiliency," said Fleming, who hit eight of his 16 shots to go with five rebounds and a couple steals. "It felt really good to go out there and get a win today. I'm not ready for it to be over with these guys."
Just arrived at Billy Donovan court.
Makes me feel so proud of Billy the Kid and all of his accomplishments. The Hall of Fame will call soon. Looking forward to playing the Gators! pic.twitter.com/RkiiPBAcBx
Pinkins, assigned the "interim" tag Sunday by UF athletic director Scott Stricklin, along with assistants Erik Pastrada and Akeem Miskdeen, sold the players on the opportunity to play one last tournament together. They extolled them to recall the way they performed, the way they played for one another, in winning the Fort Myers Tip-Off tournament back in late-November.
They won the first tournament they played together this season, so why not put everything into winning the last?
"Is it the ideal tournament or the one we strive to be in? No it's not," Pinkins said. "But you're in a tournament and you have a chance to win a tournament."
The odds of doing so didn't look so great 30 minutes in because the Gators didn't look so great; on either end of the floor. The Gaels (25-8), regular-season champions of the Metro Atlantic Conference, shot 53 percent and led by seven at halftime. Their lead was eight early in the second half, then six with 10 minutes, with Iona at 56 percent to that point. The Gators, who shot just 40 percent in the first half, were fortunate freshman guard Kowacie Reeves kept them in the game, with 14 points, including a trio of 3-balls.
At the first media timeout, Pinkins polled his team as to which defense it wanted to play. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of a straight-up man with no switching. That's what the Gators did and the game changed from there.
"We got down and the guys kept battling, kept defending," Pinkins said. "They were scoring back-to-back-to-back, so every timeout we talked about stops and eventually we kind of gathered ourselves and got a couple of stops and changed the game."
Tyree Appleby admires one of his three second-half 3-pointers on his way to a 14-point, five-assist outing.
Starting with a quick-hitting run of six straight points over a minute, the last two on a follow dunk from Castleton to tie the game at 58 with 9:45 remaining. The Gators got their first lead, at 60-59, when point guard Tyree Appleby (14 points, 5 assists) hit two free throws. It was short-lived, as the Gaels went back up by a point on an offensive rebound and putback from forward Nelly Junior Joseph (18 points, 12 rebounds).
Then the game turned. UF's defense limited Iona to just 7-for-24 shooting (29 percent) over the final 11 minutes. The Gators, meanwhile, got hot.
"They were very good defensively," Pitino said. "And then Appleby in the second half."
Ah yes. Appleby. The fifth-year senior who combined for six points the last two games and went scoreless in the loss to A&M splashed back-to-back 3-pointers over 30 seconds. The second was a ridiculous, 1-on-3 heat-check pull-up in transition that put the Gators up five and sent the Rowdy Reptiles into next-level raucous mode. After a defensive stop, Castleton took a sweet feed from Fleming and converted a layup for an 8-0 blitz that took just over a minute, pushed the Gators in front by seven and made the mostly empty O'Dome awfully loud, considering.
After a Pitino timeout, the Gaels went on an 8-2 run of their own, aided by a couple UF turnovers against full-court pressure. The Florida lead was 70-69 with four minutes remaining, when over the next 90 seconds Reeves, Castleton and then Reeves again missed front ends of one-and-one opportunities that could have padded the Gators' precarious lead. Iona's Elijah Joiner (13 points, 7 rebounds) nailed a 3 along the way to tie the game at 72.
That was the score at the 2:03 mark when Appleby stood on his baseline, to the left of the UF basket, for an inbound play. He looked off the defender and tossed a lob toward the backboard that Castleton skied for and flushed for a two-point lead. After the Gaels missed a 3, Fleming hit a guarded turn-around jumper in the paint for a four-point margin, and his two free throws after another Iona miss made it a six-point cushion, 78-72, with 32 seconds left.
UF forward Colin Castleton (center) did the dirty work inside for the Gators on his way to 18 points and 13 boards.
When Pinkins entered the locker room he got a water-bottle bath he'll never forget. Or will want to forget. He even did a little dance for his guys.
"It was good just seeing him smile, joyful and playing with us in the locker room," Appleby said. "I think it was very emotional for Coach, for sure. Now I think we're going to go on in the tournament and get him some more wins. We're going to try to finish strong."
The Gators hit their last three shots of the game and forced the Gaels into missing seven of their last eight. Yeah, that counts as a finishing strong.
And they did so under some challenging, even emotional circumstances.
Everything happens for a reason," said Castleton, who along with his 18 points (on 8-for-12 shooting) also had 13 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season. "You've just got to move on with a good attitude."
The Gators did just that and took their rookie head coach along for the ride. One of the best of his coaching life.
