Gator Country

Florida redshirt junior center Vernon Macklin slams in two points during the first half of the Gators' 64-60 loss to Vanderbilt on Tuesday at the O'Connell Center. / Gator Country photo by Heather Riggs

It’s easy to point fingers after a loss. The blame game is inevitable, especially after a close game that really should have been won. Following Tuesday night’s heartbreaker at home against Vandy, one thing is certain, you can’t put the onus on Florida’s big men.

Early in the first half, the Gators were trying their hardest just to claw back into the game. After spotting the Commodores nine points after the opening tip, it was a struggle just to keep the game respectable. With five minutes left till halftime, Florida’s front court exploded and helped propel the Gators into half with junior big men Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin scoring ten points, including six in a row by Macklin.

“I just do all the things Coach (Donovan) told me to do,” Macklin said. “He said get the ball inside and the players got the ball inside ...  that’s about it.”

The Gators faced a tough challenge down low going against Vanderbilt star A.J. Ogilvy. Ogilvy was averaging 14 points and six rebounds coming into the game and he absolutely owned Macklin in their last meeting, scoring 24 points in Nashville while Macklin was pretty much a no show, scoring just two points and fouling out while playing only 14 minutes.

Tuesday night, though, it was the Mack Daddy who romped, going off for 21 points and nine rebounds, six of those on the offensive glass.  Compare that to Ogilvy’s 16 points and eight boards. This was yet another glimpse of Macklin playing to his full potential, living up to the expectations that Gator fans had for him when he transferred from Georgetown two years ago. He was ferocious going up for rebounds and on several occasions went strong to hole scoring the basket and earning the foul shot.

Ironically, it seems as if Macklin seems to show up big whenever he is faced with a dominating opponent down low. He went for 20 against Mississippi State’s Jarvis Varnado and had a double-double (13 points and ten boards) while skunking Tennessee’s twin bigs, Brian Williams and Wayne Chism.

“I think it is a different mindset and focus, it really shouldn’t be like that,” said Alex Tyus of their playing better against better competition. “We really need to come out with that focus all the time. We know how good their bigs are and how physical their bigs are and we just try to match it.”

Billy Donovan doesn’t see it that way though. He sees Macklin’s success simply as a byproduct of his being more comfortable and developing some consistency.

“[Macklin] carried us at Ole Miss and I wouldn’t say Ole Miss has a frontcourt guy that’s highly exposed,” Donovan said. “I think Vernon has really gotten better and is putting together some games in a row here; he’s really doing a great job.”

In the end, as Donovan said, the Gators just had to pick their poison against the ‘Dores. They did all they could to neutralize the front court, preventing Ogilvy from destroying them like he did in Nashville. But, in doing that they left Vandy’s guards open from three and they hit. Macklin and the boys outscored Vandy in the paint 34-26 and outrebounded them 42-36, including 20 offensive boards. However, Vandy didn’t need many rebounds when they were shooting lights out from beyond the arc.

“The three point line was a huge difference,” Donovan said. “I think when you see a disparity like we had where it was two for us and ten for them, I think it shows how hard our guys battled and fought defensively.

“But it’s hard to take away everything. You’re not going to guard Ogilvy and take away the three point line. They shoot 33 free throws a game, they’ve got terrific three-point shooters and they’ve got a post presence. Our guys did a pretty good job.”

Donovan said that his big men did need to develop a bit more resiliency, like that of Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton, when they breaks don’t go their way. However, Donovan might have liked some production to go with that resiliency Tuesday night because Boynton and Walker combined to hit 3-24 from the field including just 1-9 on three-pointers. They came into the game averaging 26 per game combined but they managed only 12 points Tuesday night.

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