Florida’s basketball season will continue as the Gators held on at home to advance in the National Invitational Tournament, beating the Iona Gaels by a score of 79-74. Iona led for much of this game until the second half where a flurry of tough threes from Tyree Appleby and some mid range jumpers by Phlandrous Fleming brought the Gators back and put them in front with a lead that they ultimately held on to. Anthony Duruji and CJ Felder were unavailable due to injury and it meant the Gators were playing undersized and despite some unfocused basketball at times they were able to take care of business on the offensive end and come away with a win, prolonging their season.
Veteran Leaders
Despite nursing a shoulder injury that continues to limit his mobility, Colin Castleton chose to play in this game and ended up leading the Gators with 18 points and 13 rebounds. It was clear that Iona’s game plan was to try to limit his touches and swarm him every time he got the ball so it would have been very easy for him to stop working to catch the ball and let his teammates take control but instead he continued to fight for position and handle Iona’s pressure. Phlandrous Fleming, another veteran for the Gators, continued his streak of excellent basketball late in the season also having 18 points, many of which were on his silky smooth mid range jumpers that we’ve seen all year long. His points came at big moments in the second half, first to get the Gators back in the game, and next to give them a lead that they were able to hold on to.
Old Habits Die Hard
In Florida’s 33rd game of the season the same problems that have plagued them all season continued to come up, though fortunately not enough to lose the Gators this game. The Gators finished at 29% from three, turned the ball over 13 times, and gave up 15 offensive rebounds, three issues that hurt them all season long and once again showed themselves. However, if we’re going to talk about negatives that plagued them all season, we’ve also got to talk about a positive element of their game that has been present all throughout–heart, hustle, and the ability to fight back into games. It can be tough to find motivation in the NIT, the tournament these players weren’t expecting to be playing in, and when Iona held the lead for much of the game the Gators could have laid down and died. Instead they fought back, getting a win and earning themselves at least one more game in the 2021-22 season.
Youth Movement
Kowacie Reeves and Niels Lane, two of the best Gators in Florida’s final SEC game of the season, continued their stellar play and were a big reason why the Gators were able to win on Wednesday. Reeves finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds while Lane chipped in 6 points and 2 beautiful assists, all while providing the elite level defense he has become known for. Both of these players will have a decision to make whenever the Gators make a coaching hire, but keeping them around will be a top priority as they have shown they can be huge pieces of the program moving forward.
Final Thoughts
It wasn’t always pretty, but NIT games rarely are. It would have been easy to question just how motivated the Gators would be in a setting like this, but clearly they want to continue to play and the players didn’t lack effort or motivation. With the win, the Gators now advance to play Xavier who won their opening round game against Cleveland State before announcing that they fired their coach. This will be a very rare meeting of two teams that don’t have a head coach in place, meaning, well, just about anything could happen in this one.
When is the game against Xavier and is it televised and if so on what channel?