The Florida Gators came into Thursday night’s game with wins over several good mid-major programs in the first weeks of the season, but none as big as a victory over Seton Hall. The Pirates returned four starters from a team that won the Big East Tournament by upsetting eventual National Champion Villanova and made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. It was by far Florida’s toughest test of this young season.
Seton Hall was a force inside, out rebounding the Gators 40-28 with 15 second chance points to Florida’s 12. The Pirates also kept things even in the turnover battle at 12 turnovers apiece, but had a 23-16 advantage in points off turnovers.
Florida could not stop Seton Hall point guard Khadeen Carrington, who led the Pirates with 28 points. Three other Pirates also had double-digit scoring nights against the Gators.
“That guy (Carrington), he is something else with the ball in his hands,” said Mike White. “It’s another thing that’s got to give you some confidence too. He had 28 on 10-of-16. Powell played well. Delgado, he gets 13, Rodriguez gets 12 and nine and you still find a way. If you asked me if we could win with those guys getting those numbers before the game, I would have been pretty doubtful. So we did a lot well offensively, did just enough with creating some of those turnovers, converting at the foul line at a higher rate than a year ago. But Carrington, you try to force him one way and he beats you the other way. You try to force him off the line because he’s shooting a ridiculous percentage, and heck, it didn’t go down tonight, and then he gets in the paint, he gets other guys shots.”
Florida was forced to go without one of its biggest factors on both sides of the ball, Devin Robinson, for most of the game. He came in averaging 12.8 points and 6.5 rebounds for the Gators, but had just five points and three rebounds in 11 minutes on the floor due to foul trouble. He fouled out, along with Kasey Hill and Chris Chiozza in the second half. Fouls were a major issue for both sides in the game, with 51 fouls called between the two teams.
It was a frustrating night for White to watch all of the mistakes his team made that could have been costly, but he also saw a lot of maturity from guys having to step up and contribute. “They’re very, very tough mentally and physically. I thought we showed some toughness,” he said. “I’m proud of our guys in that regard, to overcome the adversity you guys talked about. John Egbunu got off to a really slow start offensively and I liked how he continued to contribute, not allow emotions to get to him. He played with a lot of maturity tonight and he ended up defensively altering some shots, blocking some shots, rebounding the glass defensively at a high level. Devin continued to stay in the game despite foul trouble, being yanked in and out the whole time, helping his teammates. So it’s nice to see a team that’s a little bit more mature than a few months ago even though they’re the same guys. They’ve just grown a little bit, and hopefully we can build off of this.”
Canyon Barry did his usual thing off the bench for the Gators, with 20 points, six rebounds, and two major assists. He has provided automatic offense for Florida when he has been on the court all season, and is by far this season’s most valuable player after the first five games.
“Canyon was great all night,” White said. “He provided a bunch of offensive spark, even had a great pass to John Egbunu, which led to a dunk I believe late, somewhat late at least. But Canyon also brings stuff that doesn’t show up in terms of leadership, just communication. He’s experienced and you hear him as much as anyone else in timeouts, just being vocal. Sometimes he’s a rah-rah guy, but sometimes he’ll jump his teammates and we need that leadership from him and Kasey and Justin and our older guys.”
Along with Barry, KeVaughn Allen finally stepped up and had the game he has been waiting to have all season. He put up 21 points on the night, was 3-of-8 from beyond the arc, and had six rebounds. Allen sparked Florida’s offense all night. In a back and forth game, with eight ties and 12 lead changes in the game, it seemed like he played a huge part in nearly every Florida run.
An Allen three-pointer in the second half started a 13-2 run to erase a six-point Seton Hall lead, which was Florida’s largest deficit of the season. The Pirates just kept coming back. The Gators were holding onto a 73-71 lead with just under two minutes to go in the game. With momentum leaning Seton Hall’s way, Allen came up with a steal on defense and followed it up with two points on the other end to give Florida a four-point lead with 56 seconds left in the game and the Gators found a way to hang on with free-throws from there.
“I thought KeVaughn Allen probably played his best game of the year as well,” said White. “He came through down the clutch. He was different tonight. I was messing with him, I said, ‘What have you been waiting on, that’s the KeVaughn we all know and love.’”
Florida now has another huge opportunity with a winner’s bracket game against Gonzaga on Friday night. The Bulldogs defeated Quinnipiac in 82-62 in the first round of the tournament and have six different players averaging double-digit scoring this season. Signature wins over Seton Hall and Gonzaga at a neutral site would add major points to Florida’s resume.