In the first five minutes of Friday night’s second round National Invitational Tournament game with Miami at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, the Florida Gators took two charging fouls and scrambled all over the floor defensively to force the Hurricanes into a shot clock violation. It was almost as if all the things Billy Donovan has been preaching the last five and a half months had finally sunk in because the Gators played like they got it for a change.
Florida (25-10) shot very well in this 74-60 win over the Hurricanes (19-13) of the Atlantic Coast Conference but that’s almost to be expected when they play a home game at the O-Dome. On the road at times, the Gators shoot like a team that couldn’t find the ocean from the end of the pier but at the O-Dome there are times when the rims must look as big as Lake Okeechobee. The Gators hit eight of their first 12 shots and five of their first eight three-pointers against Miami, impressive work, but that’s not exactly what this particular game was all about.
What set this game apart from so many of Florida’s other 24 wins is that the Gators really took to heart all the things Donovan has been preaching until he’s almost blue in the face since October. Donovan knows the Gators can beat anyone when they shoot well and they shot very well Friday night (52 percent from the field), but the margin of the game wasn’t so much shot making as it was the little things that affect winning games.
This game was all about blocking out when shots went up. The Gators outrebounded Miami’s taller and more physical Hurricanes 37-25 and that had everything to do with tipping the ball to teammates when they couldn’t get both hands on the ball.
“That was my biggest concern coming in was that when a three goes up, all their guys up front physically banging us and moving us,” Donovan said. “I thought our front court guys did a pretty good job. We got a little fatigued in the second half and I think that’s happened in some games when we gave up some easy baskets and gave up some offensive rebounds when we battled but we were a little outmatched in certain situations in size and strength.”
Miami had the size and strength but the Gators held their ground, established their position and dominated the boards. Dan Werner, who was too sick to warm up, played anyway and finished with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists. He created at least five rebounds for the Gators by tipping the ball teammates when it was bouncing uncontrolled above the rim.
It was about rotating defensively when the ball went to the other side so there was no chance for a shooter to take his time and load up an uncontested three. The Hurricanes came into the game shooting 37.1 percent from the three-point line, good for fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Hurricanes made only 7-25 (28 percent) against the Gators Friday night because the Gators were almost always there with a hand in the face of their shooters.
The game was also about holding their ground and giving up their bodies. The Gators took five charging fouls. Walter Hodge took three, one in the first five minutes of the game and two more in the final nine minutes that helped kill Miami rallies. There were three other bang-bang plays that went against the Gators but they could have just as easily been called charging on Miami.
It was about making extra passes to get open shots for teammates. The Gators had an assist on 20 of their 26 made baskets.
“I think we’re one of the best passing teams in the country,” said Nick Calathes, who led the Gators with seven assists to go with a game-high 21 points and six rebounds. “I think we find the open man really well. We’ll make the extra pass.”
Calathes set the tempo for the Gators offensively with three assists that were converted to easy, open shots as the Gators jumped to a 10-0 lead. It was 15-2 before he scored and that came on a pair of free throws with 12:14 left in the half. He didn’t take his first shot until there was 11:42 left in the half when he drilled a three off a pass from Chandler Parsons, who had seven points, four rebounds and five assists for the game.
If the first five minutes of the first half were about getting the Gators off to the right kind of start, the last 42 seconds were all about playing smart, outhustling the Hurricanes and playing unselfishly.
With 42 seconds remaining, Nick Calathes came up short on a wide- open three from the top of the key. The rebound caromed off the rim almost to the foul line where Miami’s Jack McClinton stood flat-footed, waiting for the ball to fall into his hands. Instead of an easy rebound, however, he came up empty because Ray Shipman came flying in from the wing to snag the ball. As soon as he came down with the ball, Shipman saw an opening, put the ball on the deck and weaved his way to the rip for a layup that gave the Gators a 45-32 lead.
On the ensuing possession, Shipman dived to tip the ball away from Miami’s Jack McClinton and into the hands of Walter Hodge, who put the ball on the floor for three dribbles before passing ahead to Chandler Parsons. Parsons killed his dribble at the top of the three-point arc but instead of taking what would have been a slightly contested three, he whipped a pass to a wide-open Nick Calathes on the left wing. The ball hardly touched Calathes’ hands when it was on its way to a buzzer-beating bottom of the net.
In those final moments of the half, the Gators used hustle, good defense, smart decision-making and unselfishness to snuff out an end of the half rally by the Hurricanes. The Gators started the game as hot as they’ve been all year, hitting five of their first eight three pointers and eight of their first 12 shots en route to a 20-2 start and a 31-9 lead with 7:53 left.
Miami fought its way back to an 11-point deficit (41-30) on a three-ball by Adrian Thomas with 1:35 left and again at 43-32 after a McClinton layup with 59 seconds left but Florida refused to wilt under the pressure.
Rather than wilt, the Gators stepped it up. It was a common theme of the night, never more evident than the final nine minutes of the game when Hodge took two
In the final nine minutes of the game, Hodge was a rally-killer. With the Gators leading 64-53, he took a charge on McClinton with 8:26 left in the game when the Hurricanes were trying to chip the Florida lead under double figures for the first time since the game was five minutes old. He took another with 4:05 left when the Gators were leading 71-59.
“I thought our guys did a pretty good job of trying to step up and put their bodies into plays,” said Donovan. “A couple of those charges early were good for our team defensively because we had a presence at the backboard.”
Florida’s ability to maintain the lead had everything to do with Alex Tyus playing monstrous on the boards in the second half. Tyus finished with a double-double (13 points, 12 rebounds) but nine of those rebounds came in the second half. His elbows above the rip tip in off a missed three by Erving Walker with 6:49 left in the game was another of those daggers in the heart of the Hurricanes that stretched Florida’s lead back to 14 (69-55).
In the final 10 minutes of the game it seemed that every time the Hurricanes missed, there was a Gator to grab the rebound. At the other end of the floor, it seemed that when a Gator missed, there was a Gator to grab the miss and re-start the offense.
“I think our guys did a great job of getting off to a great start and getting to all the 50-50 balls,” said Hodge, who finished the game with eight points, three rebounds, three assists and a steal while helping to limit Miami’s high-scoring Jack McClinton to a hard-earned 13 points. “Everybody rotated to the right place in the right time. I think we hustled and wanted to win this game. We play like this we are hard to beat.”
* * *
Donovan said that freshman power forward Allan Chaney, whose injured foot was expected to keep him out the rest of the season, has been suspended by Donovan for the remainder of the NIT. Donovan said it had nothing to do with the team, just a personal decision he had made based on things he would not disclose.
“First of all he’s injured so he couldn’t play anyway but other things that I dealt with,” Donovan said. “He won’t be on the bench for our next home game and if we’re fortunate enough to go to New York he won’t be coming there either.”
Donovan said that Chaney is officially still a member of the team.