The Florida Gators had just one shot to get tuned up before being thrown straight into the fire to start the season at FSU next week.
Florida won its home exhibition against Florida Southern 95-70 Tuesday night, but head coach Mike White and the team took more negatives than positives from the performance.
On paper, the Gators should have dominated the game. And at times, they did. But at other times, a Division II team took advantage of Florida’s weaknesses in ways SEC teams would do in a much bigger way.
“We’ve got a ways to go, first and foremost,” White said. “We were exposed by Florida Southern in a bunch of different areas.”
Some of the worst points in the game were the end of the first half and start of the second half.
The Mocs had 17 points with just over four minutes remaining in the first half, but went on to double that score in that short span to make it 54-34 at the break.
Then, Florida Southern came out strong in the second half while the Gators seemed to make no defensive adjustments and allowed the game to come as close as 14 points after being up by as many as 29.
“I wasn’t pleased with the way we responded,” White said. “As our veterans know, when you take a dip defensively and you lose your edge, of which I thought we showed up with at the tip tonight, it’s really hard to get it back. So, the challenge was to simulate this is an SEC game and we’re up three and we’ve gotta find a way to get some stops. And we came out and got torched early second half.”
One of the biggest keys to Florida’s defensive deficiencies was a lack of communication, especially when it came to guarding point guard Jonathan Lawton. Lawton had the best offensive game of any player on the court as he put up 25 points on the Gators.
Florida knows that is the biggest area it has to work on, but this matchup showed that it may be a little further behind than it even expected.
“We’ve been a little bit tougher in practice,” White said. “That was a little bit disappointing. I thought we were pretty soft defensively … This is where accountability can really be exposed when you’re not really good in those areas. I don’t think a lot of teams are in college basketball right now. I do foresee it being our biggest weakness, as it was last year. Pretty similar team DNA in that regard, so hopefully we can make the same strides as we did a year ago during the season.”
On offense, the Gators gave up far too many turnovers at 16. Forward Keith Stone and point guards Andrew Nembhard and Mike Okauru were the main culprits with three apiece.
While it is easy to focus on all the negatives from a game like this one, there were a few positives.
Nembhard and Okauru each did some good things while alternating at the position throughout the game. Both dished four assists, and Nembhard would have had several more if not for inexcusable misses on some easy scores.
Nembhard played the most minutes of anyone on the team with 27, and while he needs to take care of the basketball a little bit more, his passing ability lived up to the high expectations.
After the game, White said the freshman point guard plays older than his actual age, and that level of maturity was evident on the court. He never looked rushed or uncomfortable with the ball in his hands.
“He finds people before they’re open,” said senior guard Jalen Hudson. “He’s gonna be really good. I’m not gonna say too much, but I think that he has a lot of room to just show you guys. Like in practice, he’s a lot better than he was today. He’s just gonna continue to get way better.”
Fellow freshmen Keyontae Johnson and Noah Locke turned in decent first performances as well.
Johnson showed off his athleticism on both ends of the court with 12 points (5-for-7 from the field) and 8 rebounds.
Locke found his hot streak late in the game when he made all three of his three-pointers of the night over a course of three minutes. He finished with 11 points.
Another impressive streak in the game came from sophomore guard Deaundrae Ballard, who scored on three straight possessions for Florida in the second half, including back-to-back three-pointers on the way to a 13-point game.
“He got off to a slow start in practice,” White said. “And then, the last couple weeks, maybe the last 10 days or so, he’s been really good in practice, and shooting the ball as well as anybody on our team. He’s still learning to play within himself, still trying to become more accountable defensively, but he’s competitive … Deaundrae has the ability to really score it, so he’s gotta find a way to earn more minutes where he can do that.”
Dontay Bassett made the very most of his 9 minutes. He’s been battling with some injuries, as he just recently returned from a rolled ankle and had some stitches over his eye as well.
Bassett finished 5-for-5 from the field and a surprising 2-for-2 from three for 12 points.
Florida’s veterans did not make as much noise as they likely hoped for or expected, but still finished as some of the stats leaders.
Jalen Hudson led the team with 14 points (4-for-10 from the field, 3-for-6 from deep) and KeVaughn Allen had 10 points (3-for-7 from the field, 2-for-2 from three) and 5 boards. Stone did not get many opportunities on offense, but led the Gators with 10 rebounds on the night.
At the end of the day, it was an exhibition. The O’Dome wasn’t packed and there were no stakes.
The Gators learned some things about themselves, but next Tuesday will be the real test of what kind of team Florida will be this season.