After establishing a significant halftime lead and then displaying lazy defense in the second half, the inevitable happened.
The Florida Gators were defeated for the first time this season, just two games in their schedule and to an in-state rival in the Miami Hurricanes.
What happened? Here’s Five Takeaways from the Florida-Miami matchup:
- A Settling Facade – That’s what the Gators did – settle. They settled thinking they had the game in the bag and putting up a 15-point lead at the half would provide enough leverage to aid them to a win. They were wrong. After Miami played a horrible first half thanks to the Florida defense early on, but in the second half the Hurricanes remained patient and slowly came back to their second win of the year. The Gators allowed only 21 points by the half yet allowed Miami to score more than double those points in the second half with 48. UF shot 61 percent by halftime and Miami was only 9-of-26 for 34.6 percent. Second half came by and the team didn’t apply the same D, especially on guard Angel Rodriguez who only had two points at halftime and then recorded 22 second half points to finish with 24. Rodriguez hit a crucial three-pointer that was the game winner over Kasey Hill, who played great defense on Rodriguez the first half, but not in the second. Overall the questions return to this team about their defense.
Donovan’s Take: “This is not anything against Kasey Hill because he needs to learn, but that’s not happening against Scottie Wilbekin. It’s not. You know? And Kasey is going to learn to get better. I’m really proud of Kasey because he’s really made some significant strides defensively from a year ago. He’s gotten better. Is where he needs to be? No.”
- Star Player Helpless in Defeat – Despite Florida’s horrendous second half defense, forward Dorian Finney-Smith, a factor on the Gators offense, watched from the bench and couldn’t help even if he wanted to. Finney-Smith injured his hand during the season-opener after diving for a loose ball. His two hairline fractures on his fingers caused him to sit and watch his team’s collapse. Doe-Doe warmed up pregame and seemed to be playing and moving fine, although he would shy away from his left hand taking immediate impact of a pass. Since Finney-Smith couldn’t play, all everyone could do was imagine if he did play because that’s a guaranteed at least 10 points you’re missing out on the scoreboard. However, the pain was unbearable and the result caused him to cheer for his team on the sidelines.
Donovan’s Take: “I would say no (on Finney-Smith playing Friday). I would say he’ll probably not play Friday either from where the trainers and doctors think he’s at in terms of his pain.”
- Can’t Change The Past – The Top 10 Gators loss and although it hurt the team and the fans, what is done, is done. The Gators faced a similar situation last year. Missing their starting point guard in Scottie Wilbekin when taking on Wisconsin and Florida ended up losing on the road. That was the second game of the season last year. So this year it was the Miami game and missing Finney-Smith. Florida now has a history of playing quality opponents early on in the season and taking a tough loss as well. Both last year’s and this year’s team were ranked when the losses took place.
Horford’s Take: “Guys have to get over it quickly and get on the next one. We have to listen to the coaches, they know what they are talking about and have a lot of great teaching points. It’s the beginning of the season, we will keep getting better every day and everything will work out.”
- Records Don’t Last Forever – A 33-game winning streak inside the O’Connell Center was a record that looked like it was going to roll on, but it stopped. Early on Florida had it going, but they fell flat and with it went the home winning streak. It’s a record that has stretched across last season where the team didn’t lose a home game at all. This time it just happened to come early and in a disappointing fashion.
Donovan’s Take: “I guess streaks are meant to be broken. I didn’t really look at it that way. Out basketball team needs to get better. It was a great run here at home. A couple of years there it was really nice. I loved the challenge today because this wasn’t our full team and I thought some guys poured their heart out there with some significantly limited numbers.”
5. A-Rod: Ice Cold to Red Hot – Coming into the matchup, Miami had a couple of transfer players that could provide great offense for the Canes, especially at the guard position. One of those guys was Kansas State transfer point guard Angel Rodriguez. Starting off the game with no notion of making an impact, he’ll turn it around and make a presence down the stretch, reminding Florida to not forget about him. Florida knew the team would have a challenge again with their opponents back court as the Gators successfully shut down Marcus Thornton from William & Mary, but couldn’t stop Rodriguez for a full 40 minute contest. He started off going 1-of-5 to finishing the game 7-of-14 at 50 percent from the field and drilling a game-high five three-pointers. Rodriguez is an example of how Florida can fall to one player’s good play as it happened last year with Shabazz Napier. If the Gators can keep their opponent’s star player within a reasonable limit, they should clinch these nail biters.
Carter’s Take: “He’s a pretty good guard. He got off a couple of three’s in the second half, couple of tough shots that went in. A good player. We have to get better for a 40-minute game.”