Florida moved on to the SEC Tournament semifinals after knocking off Missouri and though they had to wait for the game after them to find out who they’d face, it didn’t take long to realize it was going to be the Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama entered the game as the higher seed so they were favored to beat Kentucky to advance to play the Gators, and when the Wildcats’ best defender Lamont Butler was ruled out before the game it looked even more clear that the Crimson Tide had the advantage and that’s exactly what played out. Though Kentucky played admirably to keep the game somewhat within reach for the first half Alabama’s offensive firepower was too much in the second which resulted in a blowout 99-70 win.
With Kentucky missing Butler among others there may not be a ton to take away from this game on the Alabama side, but the play of freshman Lebaron Philon was particularly impressive as he led the way with 21 points. Playing in a big arena for the first time can often mean streaky shooting, but just like it wasn’t an issue at all for the Gators the Crimson Tide also saw no issues hitting 38% of their threes going 11-29. One advantage of the lopsided score was that Alabama was able to give some of their key players a lighter minute load, playing Grant Nelson and Cliff Omoruyi just 16 and 14 minutes (both are rumored to be playing with injuries) while star guards Mark Sears and Lebaron Philon played 26 and 30 minutes.
The Florida and Alabama’s regular season matchup was quite recent, on March 5th, so both teams will have the opponent fresh on their minds. Upon the final buzzer the score said 99-94 for Florida, but that score doesn’t really tell the whole story of the game. With under 6 minutes remaining the Gators were up by 14 and some furious shot making and fouling in the final moments when the game was all but decided meant the score was brought closer but the feel of the game on the whole was Florida having an edge on The Tide.
Coming away from this game the biggest story was the play of Alex Condon who had arguably the best game of his career with 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks, finishing multiple highlight reel lobs from Walter Clayton. Condon has been playing his best basketball of late, and Alabama was the perfect matchup for him to demonstrate all that makes him such an excellent player. Alabama’s frontcourt is tall and lanky but they don’t have much bulk and that meant a distinct size advantage for Condon and he used it to carve out space and finish around the rim. He was largely matched up with Grant Nelson who wasn’t moving all that well due to his injury and Condon was more than willing to take advantage with every touch. This matchup will be available to the Gators once again and you can look for them to try to exploit it as much as possible.
Walter Clayton was also rock solid with 22 points and 8 assists, with many of those dimes going to Condon for uncontested dunks at the rim. Alabama chose to play against Clayton’s pick and rolls with a drop coverage scheme and Clayton was picking it apart with his ability to make plays in the midrange. After hitting a couple of pull up jumpers he started to spray the ball around to his teammates and it seemed like whatever he wanted to do was going to yield success. Given how good Clayton’s shooting touch was against Missouri, attacking the drop coverage of Alabama once again will likely be a good recipe.
Florida’s biggest concern has to be defending guards Mark Sears and Lebaron Philon and particularly keeping them out of the paint. Sears, a player who has torched the Gators every time he has seen them in his time at Alabama, was elite once again finishing with 30 points and 5 assists. He did this despite going just 2-10 from three-point range which means he got most of his points right at the rim, and that’s what the Gators can’t allow. Sears has an excellent first step to drive by defenders on the outside, but what really makes him special is what happens when he gets into the paint. He loves to come to a jump stop and start using different pivot moves, almost like an elite post player–except he’s just 6’1”. Posting up Sears is also in the Alabama playbook, and the Gators will have to do what they can to keep the ball out of his hands and keep him out of the paint.
Philon is much more of a bursty-type guard who uses straight line speed and athleticism, presenting a very different challenge than Sears. Philon finished with 19 points and 4 assists on efficient 8-13 shooting against the Gators so he has shown them just how dangerous he can be. Just how the Gators choose to guard both of these players will be interesting, and that starts with how they handle the matchups. Alijah Martin is a player that Florida’s staff generally likes to have guard the opposing team’s most dangerous perimeter player which could mean Mark Sears, though they may move him around to get some minutes on Philon as well.
Another reason why the Gators were able to win the regular season matchup was the rebounding battle. As previously mentioned, Alabama doesn’t have a ton of muscle on the perimeter which means they can struggle with defensive rebounding, and for a Florida team that loves nothing more than offensive rebounding it was blood in the water every time a shot went up. Florida grabbed 16 offensive rebounds which was a huge part of their scoring success, and that could very well be an advantage once again on Saturday.
Florida and Alabama will tip off on Saturday, March 15th at 3:30 PM ET and it will be televised on ESPN.