Florida Gators Basketball Defeats Palm Beach Atlantic in Exhibition

The Florida Gators Basketball season kicked off their season by defeating Palm Beach Atlantic 89-42 in a preseason exhibition game on Thursday night. This matchup, that pitted the Gators against a Division II team, allowed Florida to get out some jitters, identify their positives, and find the things they will need to work on going into regular season play. We’re going to breakdown their performance by each half.

The Opening Half

            Both teams started off a bit messy with Florida committing 15 turnovers and PBA totaling 17 in the first half. But the 15 turnovers weren’t for a lack of effort on the part of the Gators. In fact, it appears to have been for the exact opposite reason.

“Unfortunately for us, we played with too much intensity when the ball was in our hands,” Gators Head Coach Mike White stated when referring to the rash of turnovers by his offense. “It’s a process to understand… that the game should be at two speeds.” White went on to talk about how the game has to slow down once the Gators have the ball. For his squad in the first half, it was understandable that his players wanted to come out on fire, and that mixed with being in a new system that they are not fully comfortable in, yet can result in some sloppy play early on. The Gators went on to clean this area up a bit in the second half.

Freshman KeVaughn Allen led all players in points scored in the first half with 10, and John Egbunu and Devin Robinson tied for second most scored on the team for the half with six points. Palm Beach Atlantic’s Bakari Barthen scored the second most points overall in the first half with nine. Looking at percentages, let’s examine if Coach White’s building blocks helped to build the team up or threaten put a crack in the foundation if not fixed quickly.

While field goals were respectable (at 48.4%) and three-pointers were admirable (at 46.2%), free throws were admittedly painful (at 30%). In the aspect of valuing the ball, I would say that it came out to about even as the Gators turned the ball over nearly as many times as they got it, as previously stated. As for fouls, the Gators were exactly neutral on this as they committed 11, but forced PBA into 11 of their own with a blazing fast offense. In defending the glass, this would have to be where the Gators recorded their biggest victory. They totaled 17 defensive rebounds to PBA’s five offensive rebounds, and recorded five blocks during this first half. The Gators’ overmatched opponent did not log any the entire game.

If we’re giving a star for each of the five categories, three and a half stars out of five sounds appropriate for this half considering it was Coach White’s first half of play ever as the Florida Gators head coach. The major talking points for Coach with his team would presumably be sloppy play at times leading to turnovers and free throws.

The Closing Half

            In the second half, Florida pulled away and scored 50 points to PBA’s 21. Gators Dorian Finney-Smith and Chris Chiozza tied for most points scored in this half with nine apiece. Palm Beach Atlantic’s leading scorer was Osandai Vaughn with seven points. When all was said and done, the Gators had five different players score 10-plus points. The visitors had two such players.

Assessing the success of White’s five building blocks in the second half, fans will see that three-point shooting dropped down to a more modest percentage (at 35.7, though field goals improved to a great 67.9 percentage). In free throw percentage, Florida improved, but only just. Going from a paltry 30 in the first half to just bad 41.2 percent overall, the Gators are going to have to do something about this to get it up to respectable levels. In valuing the ball, fans can say this is a small win considering Florida’s eight turnovers to PBA’s 13 in this half. For fouls, again we’ll score it right in the middle as Florida only committed two less fouls (11) than Palm Beach Atlantic (13) in the second half of play. Florida gets another big check in the final category of defending the glass. Performing two blocks and 16 defensive rebounds to PBA’s five offensive rebounds, the Gators were almost exactly on par with their first half defensive play as they allowed the exact same point total to their opponents as well (21).

Grading these five areas, the Gators earned about two and a half stars. That’s not to say they did poorly overall; there is just so much that can still be improved upon and was not able to be proven in an exhibition game. Fortunately, what Florida should be able to build off of most is the defense. By continuing to “fly around on defense” with “unbelievable energy level” and getting the ball back in the hands of the offense, the Gators can show off more of the high-octane offense they have been praising over the offseason.

austyn_szempruch
The son of a Florida alum, Austyn grew up hearing of the lows of the ’79 Gators and experiencing the highs of the Chris Leak and Tim Tebow led Gators. Through it all, he knew he was born to be a Gator too. Knowing that his greatest passion besides Florida football was history, he finally achieved his dream of gaining admission to the University of Florida in 2012 and decided to major in history. Throughout his college career he attended every Gator game he could, as well as gaining invaluable experience while interning at the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at UF. During his senior year at Florida, he saw his chance to combine his writing experience from history with his love of all things UF and was blessed with the opportunity to intern at Gator Country. As well as the Gators, he is a huge supporter of the Eagles and what they plan to do with Tim Tebow. Austyn also enjoys the idea of devoting his life to being a professional golfer but settles for being a casual golfer with a decent drive and a bad putt.