Mike White and the Florida Gators basketball team notched their 15th win of the season and snapped a two-game losing streak with a historic shooting performance against the LSU Tigers. Exactly one week after not making a single three-pointer against South Carolina, the Gators went to LSU and made a school record high 19 threes on Wednesday night.
Florida’s impressive 58 percent from beyond the arc not only atoned the South Carolina performance but also put some pep in the Gator’s step after the tough Vanderbilt loss on Saturday. The record-breaking performance came at a perfect time for the Gators, and head coach Mike White thinks that the Gator team will be fired up after a road win on Wednesday, “You’ve got to think that our locker room has got some confidence,” White said, “And we bounced back after a really tough home loss to Vanderbilt.”
Gator shooting guard Devin Robinson cashed in 24 points tonight against the Tigers which is good enough to break his previous career high of 21. A performance, Mike White says, may be Robinson’s best ever, “I thought Devin was amazing. Devin played arguably his best game as a Gator.” Robinson was one of six Gator players in double digits and was tied with Eric Hester with a game-high five threes.
How could Florida have its best three-point shooting performance with one of their best in Canyon Barry sitting out due to an ankle injury? The Gators had some unusual contributors to the three point scoring column on Wednesday night. Starting with Eric Hester. Hester had only played four minutes off the bench in conference play so far; his 15 points on five threes was a career high and also his only points against a conference opponent. To go with Hester off the bench, Chris Chiozza also played his best game of the year with 3 of 6 from downtown to go with his game-high 10 assists.
As it should, the offense will be all the talk in boosting the Gator’s confidence going forward, but Mike White thinks that the defense is just as much to credit for the Gators’ good shooting, “Some of that is because the basket seems to be a little bit bigger when you’re in a defensive rhythm and you’re stringing together a few stops at a time.”
The Florida Gators conquered their first mission on this long road trip, beating the LSU Tigers. Now, Florida faces a much better opponent in Oklahoma on Saturday. While the Sooners are not quite up to their standards in hoops, a road win against a Big 12 opponent like Oklahoma sure looks good on a resume with March creeping up pretty fast. To beat Oklahoma, the Gators must continue their discipline on defense and try to maintain as much offensive poise as they can. With shooting, confidence is key, and Mike White saw the confident shooting on Wednesday night like he hadn’t seen so far this season.