Florida had to wait until late Thursday night to find out who their Friday opponent would be, and after withstanding a physical battle from Mississippi State it was the Missouri Tigers who won out to advance to take on the Gators.
Missouri was one of the best stories from the SEC season, picked in the preseason to finish 13th after a year where they shockingly went winless in the league. The Tigers were able to drastically over perform that prediction finishing 7th in the SEC and finding themselves #21 in the AP Poll speaking to the national recognition they deserved. Earning the 7th seed the Tigers had a first round bye before taking on Mississippi State who advanced after destroying LSU, but they ran out of steam as Mizzou ended up winning 85-73 in a game that was within one or two possessions for much of the 40 minutes.
Given that Florida was the 2nd seed in the SEC and got a double bye it was probably expected that they would run into a team that they’d feel confident against but they’ll run into one of the few teams in the league that actually handed them a loss this year. Florida and Missouri tipped off back in January and the Tigers got the early jump going up by 19 in the first half, and while the Gators were able to fight back and minimize the deficit Missouri still came away with an 83-82 win. While this game was almost two months ago–Missouri will have confidence that they can beat the Gators, and Florida’s game prep will be all about deciphering what went wrong in the earlier matchup and how they can clean things up the second time around.
In that meeting Missouri was able to slow the game down and take the Gators out of transition, making it a half court game where both teams traded set plays against an established defense. The Gators are a team that loves to get up and down and play in transition so this was a pace that definitely benefited the Tigers and that was a huge reason why Missouri was able to be successful. Particularly dangerous was Caleb Grill who had 22 points while shooting 6-10 from three, many of which came off set plays that creatively got him open. On the other end, Florida struggled to create against the old, savvy Missouri roster and kicked the ball around as they tried to solve the puzzle ultimately turning the ball over 13 times, another area they’ll definitely be looking to clean up.
One of the most interesting elements of this game was the fact that Missouri did something that very few teams have done this year–out-rebound the Gators. The Tigers had 15 offensive rebounds (an excellent 38% offensive rebound rate) while the Gators had 12, and Missouri’s extra offensive rebounds along with the amount of steals they had meant they had a bunch more possessions than the Gators. Florida almost always wins the possession battle due to their offensive rebounding and it allows them to still put up points when their shots aren’t falling, and this game shows that if they are to lose that category they can come out on the wrong side of the outcome. Missouri is one of the few teams with the size to bang with the Gators down low with 6’9”, 235 pound Mark Mitchell, 6’10”, 220 pound Trent Pierce, 7’0”, 260 pound Josh Gray, and 7’0”, 300 pound Peyton Marshall, and Florida will have to respond to that kind of size in a more inspired way this time around.
While it was Missouri’s frontcourt that was particularly strong against the Gators earlier in the season, it was the backcourt that played excellent to start the SEC Tournament with Tamar Bates putting up 25 points while Tony Perkins had 20 points and 4 assists. Against the Gators these two combined for just 14 points in one of their lowest output games of the season but they are playing much better basketball this time around and they can cause problems with their size and physicality at the guard spot. Perkins, standing at 6’4” and 200 pounds, is really big for a point guard and he isn’t someone who is a particularly good shooter so he’s looking to dribble his man down to the block and finish in close, and while the Gators did a great job of not allowing that in the first meeting you can bet he’ll look to pick his spots a lot more in round two. Bates, a 6’5”, 195 pound shooting guard, also will have a length advantage when at the “2” playing against the Gators and will look for an improved performance on Friday.
For the last week around the Florida program there was some discussion how important it was to advance in the SEC Tournament as opposed to saving legs for the NCAA Tournament. No one would expressly say they were hoping to bow out of the SEC Tournament early, but there was discussion about how they wouldn’t necessarily want to leave everything out on the floor. Florida, of course, lost Micah Handlogten to a season ending injury in last year’s SEC Tournament, and that wasn’t actually Todd Golden’s first event of bad luck in a conference tournament. In his last year at San Francisco the Dons lost Yauhen Massalski, one of his best players and most important frontcourt players in the first round of the WCC Tournament, and then they went on to lose in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in overtime–making you wonder what would have happened if they were totally healthy. Possibly scarred by these two moments, Golden did express some concerns about going all out in the SEC Tournament.
Well, that was until the SEC awards came out.
Florida’s locker room felt slighted by multiple of the results, whether the All-SEC teams, the 6th Man Of The Year, the Defensive Player Of The Year, or the Coach Of The Year, and Golden came out in a press conference to suggest that the snubs were fuel for the team and that they were coming to Nashville to win it all. You can expect the Gators to go hard for the next few days and see the regular rotation playing a ton of minutes as they look to advance.
It is universally acknowledged that the SEC this year is one of the strongest years in college basketball history and there is going to be a lot of clout with whatever team is able to cut down the nets at the end. Additionally, it will be a positive impact for whatever team that wins to know that they can roll through multiple talented teams–exactly what they’ll need to do if they want to win an NCAA Tournament Championship.
Florida and Missouri will tip off Friday, March 14th at 7 PM ET, and it will be televised on SEC Network.