Florida is looking to ride some momentum after winning three of their last four and they’ll have a fantastic opportunity to do so against a lowly Vanderbilt Commodores team currently on a 5-game losing skid. Their losing streak started with a loss to the Gators in their first meeting of the season in Nashville and the Gators will be looking to take the season sweep at home. In the first meeting the Gators were coming off their three week hiatus following the Florida State contest, though they showed no rust on their way to a 91-72 win. The Commodores are a vulnerable team without much going their way right now, but the Gators won’t be showing any sympathy.
Things have gotten so bad in Nashville that head coach Jerry Stackhouse exploded in a press conference the past weekend, suggesting his players lacked focus and didn’t love playing basketball. He specifically called out freshman Myles Stute, a wing the Gators actually recruited, and called him unplayable. It was as fiery and, frankly, bizarre an outburst as you’re going to see from a coach calling out his own players (if you haven’t seen it yet, you should search it) and how his team responds will be a fascinating storyline on Wednesday.
Most of Stackhouse’s frustration has related to Vanderbilt’s inability to play defense. They’re currently 200th in adjusted defensive efficiency, currently the worst mark of any high major basketball team. Even when their offense has picked up, which occasionally it will do, their defense has allowed opponents to run away with games and that has led to Vanderbilt’s winless start to SEC play. While they haven’t been able to come away with any victories they did play Kentucky and Mississippi State to one possession games, showing they can hang with SEC teams the Gators lost to.
Florida’s offense has been the strength of their team and they’ll have a great chance to put up a lot of points against the worst defense they’re going to see this season. They lack length and athleticism on the perimeter which leads to plenty of straight line drives and they don’t have the rim protection on the interior to mop up any of those mistakes. Myles Stute was the player singled out by Stackhouse for his poor defensive rotations, but he’s far from the only Commodore to struggle with being in the right place at the right time and Vanderbilt’s general lack of connectivity defensively is what’s killing them.
Something they do execute well defensively is when it comes to guarding pick and rolls. Stackhouse came from the NBA where “dropping” pick and roll coverages is common and he has brought the strategy to the college ranks. In this defense the big man guarding the screen setter “drops” back towards the paint to wall off any drives while the player guarding the ball handler chases overtop of the screen to take away any chance at a pull-up three. It’s a conservative style of defense, but one that’s easy to execute and often effective.
A team that could learn something about pick and roll defense is the Gators who have had little to no success guarding pick and rolls this season. It didn’t end up hurting them on a night where their offense carried things but Florida got torched by Vanderbilt’s pick and roll attack as they constantly drew the Gators out of position before finding the open man for jumpers. Had the Commodores found a way to get stops their offense might have been good enough to get a win that game and if the Gators were to come out flat offensively there is a chance Vanderbilt could get a lead based simply off their ability to pick apart Florida’s pick and roll defense.
One of the reasons they are so effective is the play of sophomore Scotty Pippen who has been extremely impressive this season as a scorer and primary offensive initiator. The Commodores lack playmaking for other positions on the floor and every opposing team’s scouting report has focused on stopping Pippen and his ability to still get loose speaks to just how good a player he is. Despite the Commodores getting hammered by the Gators earlier in SEC play Pippen was outstanding, finishing with 18 points, 6 assists, 2 blocks, and 3 steals. Stopping him will once again be the focus for Florida who would love to do a better job with him this time around than they did in game one.
One player who might help out with this is Scottie Lewis. Florida hasn’t said whether or not he’ll be available for Wednesday’s game yet but there has to be a good probability. Before the Georgia game he hinted on social media that he was close to playing and he was listed as a game time decision before ultimately not playing. Lewis has been a solid contributor when active this season and adding him back to the mix would be huge for a team that has found ways to win without him.
For Florida the big key to the game will be shoring up their pick and roll defense. So far this season it has been downright embarrassing and they need to find a way to improve it and if they don’t even Vanderbilt is good enough to exploit it. Schematically, a change might be in order for Florida. They’ve been using a flat hedge style of ball screen defense that has allowed ball handlers to get far too comfortable, letting them either feather the ball into the roll man or find the open shooter that has been vacated by the required help defender this style of defense demands. What Florida is doing has simply shown on a number of occasions that it isn’t going to work, and if they want to try something new a great opportunity to start would be against Vanderbilt.
Right now Florida’s biggest strengths is the shotmaking that comes from the backcourt combination of Tre Mann and Tyree Appleby. The ability of these too players to improvise and get shots when an offensive set breaks down has completely elevated Florida’s offensive ceiling, something we saw against Georgia. Vanderbilt lacks high level defensive talent to hang with these two and they could have a field day if their shots keep falling.
Florida has also gotten a whole lot out of their center rotation of Colin Castleton and Omar Payne, two elite shot blockers who have also been punishing teams on the offensive glass. Vanderbilt doesn’t have great size and has struggled keeping teams off the glass and these two could be ripe for plenty of second chance opportunities.
The Gators are cautiously putting together some positive momentum and the team is playing with great energy and confidence. Playing against a dismal Vanderbilt squad should give them an opportunity to play loose and come away with a solid win, while a loss could spell disaster.
It all goes down Wednesday at 6:30 ET.