GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Remember that big win over second-ranked Tennessee? Remember those six wins over seven Southeastern Conference games? Remember that smothering Florida defense?
Though some of the momentum began vaporizing in back-to-back losses at Kentucky and Alabama over the last week, those setbacks were nothing compared to the gut punch the Gators took Saturday against Vanderbilt.
Seven-foot center Liam Robbins scored a career-high 32 point and the Commodores eviscerated the UF defense by banging 12 of 23 shots from the 3-point line and handed the home team a devastating 88-80 loss Saturday at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. The defeat was a brutal one because UF (13-12, 6-6), despite its recent run of three losses in four games while facing a trio of top-five opponents, seemingly had its postseason fate in hand, assuming the Gators could protect their home floor for the balance of the schedule.
Turned out they couldn't.
Robbins, in his second season since transferring from Minnesota, hit 10 of his 18 shots from the floor, including three of four from deep. Guard Trey Thomas was 4-for-4 from the arc and backup guard Colin Smith two of three, as five different Vandy players dropped long balls against a UF defense — 10 days ago rated one of the 10 best in the country — that suddenly cannot find shooters in transition or the half court.
The Gators, unfortunately, remain the same struggling team from the 3-point line. They went a frustrating 2-for-20 from deep (10 percent) this game, which pretty much undercut an otherwise productive offensive performance: 64 percent from the 2-point area, led by 25 points and 11 rebounds from fifth-year forward Colin Castleton. a minus-30 differential from the arc in a close game is a pretty much a recipe for defeat. Going 14-for-23 from the free-throw line didn't help either.
"Disappointed," was how Florida coach Todd Golden, now with four losses over the last five games, started his post-game news conference. But that disenchantment was not rooted in the team's offensive struggled, as he explained.
"What allowed us to get pretty good coming into the Tennessee game, winning six of seven league games, [was being] really good at controlling the control-ables; the things that don't necessarily require talent, and being good at those things. And then when the things that did require talent were going our way we were really good," Golden said. "I won't ever get too upset over missed free throws — I know our guys are trying to make free throws — or get upset and criticize our 2-for-20 from 3. Obviously, our guys are trying to make shots. But we were really bad at executing things that are important to our team and program and a huge part of that was an inability to defend the 3-point line."
It started from the beginning, courtesy of a furious back-and-forth and up-and-down opening 10 minutes that did not get an official timeout until the 9:48 mark. By then, Vandy (13-12, 6-6) had made four 3s after starting the game by making its first seven field-goal attempts. The Commodores went on to lead 42-41 at halftime, making 51.6 percent overall and 7-for-14 from deep.
The Gators were at nearly 53 percent, but one for 10 on 3s.
Freshman guard Riley Kugel had a second straight game with career scoring high, this time with 18 points on eight of 14 shooting from the floor.
"They came out aggressive. They hit a bunch of tough shots to go on a little run there, and we came out stagnant a little on the offensive end, but they were able to hit open 3s," Castleton said. "That was one of the keys we had coming into this game was not give up wide open 3s because they have really good shooters on the perimeter. Their guards can get it off pretty quickly, and their big man as well shot a couple 3s. That was the goal, and we let them make too many."
Still, Florida took its first lead early in the second half and got up by as many as four after a rare 3 from sophomore reserve wing Kowacie Reeves (14 points) with 14:36 to play. The Gators had a chance to pad the lead, but Richards missed two free throws and the Commodores answered with their first 3-pointer of the half, this one from Thomas, at the 12:35 mark.
Florida led 61-58 inside 11 minutes left when Thomas drove for a floater that started a run of seven straight points to throw Vandy back up by four. Richard, though, got an old-fashion 3-point play to close the Gators within a point with just over eight minutes, with the sellout O'Dome crowd very much in the game.
Guess what happened next? Yep, a 3 by Smith. The Commodores finished out from there.
"Those guys made some real tough shots with hands right in their face, good contests," Reeves said. "Sometimes you have to tip your hat. That's 12 threes in one game for a team that doesn't do that every single game."
On a day that Florida — with losses by Kentucky, Auburn and Arkansas— could have moved into fourth place in the SEC standings, instead the Gators fell back into a jumble of three or four teams vying for positions anywhere from seventh to ninth (and one game out of 10th).
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, has won three in a row and is in that jumbled mix, trending upward and doing so at UF's expense.
"Both teams came out really focused, especially on the offensive end, some of the best offensive effort all year from two teams," said Commodores coach Jerry Stackhouse, who in his fourth season finally got a first win in 10 cracks against the Gators. "I think we finally injected a little bit of defense in the second half and created a little bit of separation."
Not to mention a lot of anxiety for the home team. The Gators now have serious defensive issues, having allowed the last three teams to combine to shoot nearly 48 percent overall and 47 from distance and average 85.7 points. Those are mind-numbing numbers considering where the defense was just 10 days ago.
"Everything we want is still in front of us," Golden said. "But we made it a lot more difficult on ourselves, obviously, by losing this game."
