Life without Colin Castleton and Jason Jitoboh started about as poorly as one could’ve imagined against Oklahoma State on Saturday.
Without their only true low-post threats, the Gators were unable – or unwilling – to drive to the basket, make shots through contact and draw fouls in the first half. Instead, they launched 20 threes and only attempted nine shots inside the arc, and even one of them was a jump shot. They shot just 34.5 percent overall during the period and only made five of those threes.
At the other end, the Cowboys seemed to get whatever shots they wanted without Castleton and Jitoboh there to provide resistance. They made 11 layups and dunks in the first half, and they made a whopping seven of 10 tries from long distance.
Oklahoma State led by 16 points with 6:28 to go in the first half, and they led 45-32 at halftime.
The Gators were dead in the water.
And then they weren’t.
As dominant as Oklahoma State was in the opening 20 minutes, Florida was even more dominant in the second half. They made 50 percent of their shots, including five of 11 threes; held the Cowboys to 29 percent shooting and forced 12 turnovers that they converted into 15 points. They outscored them 49-27 after halftime.
Their second-half surge was enough to get the job done. The Gators defeated Oklahoma State, 81-72, in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
“With everything going on and then the haymakers they were throwing, the way Oklahoma State played in the first half, the way that we just didn’t respond at all, for us to have that second half performance is, one, a little befuddling and, two, shows you the fight that these guys have,” UF coach Mike White said. “Really proud of that effort.”
The rally started inside UF’s locker room at halftime, where White delivered a harsh, succinct and accurate assessment of how they played to the players.
“‘Soft, soft,’” guard Tyree Appleby said. “That’s all he said was ‘Soft.’ He said we weren’t playing to the best of our abilities. We’re better defensively. We held the previous three teams to about 20 in a half. So, he knew what we could do, but we just had to do it and step up. All he just said was ‘Soft.’”
White said that he was surprised by how his team played in the first half, and he felt like he needed to call them out for it.
“I told these guys ‘I did not see that coming,’” he said. “We’re coming off a game where we played as hard as you can play. We left every ounce of energy and fight and level of physicality up in Knoxville, and this is a hard-playing team. This is a physically tough team that we have here and then more adversity and stepping up for Jason, and we were in the hospital this morning. Emotional day. ‘Let’s do it for J,’ and then just to lay a dud there in the first was shocking, but our guys responded in a huge way.
“No one likes to be called soft, but we played soft in the first half. We just did. Part of that is Oklahoma State played really tough and confidently, but we were good in the second 20.”
White backed up those words with an even louder action. He sent a rather unusual lineup out on the court to begin the second half: guards Appleby, Elijah Kennedy, Kowacie Reeves and Niels Lane and forward Tuongthach Gatkek.
Kennedy had averaged just 5.7 minutes over the team’s previous seven games. Lane hadn’t played in a game since Dec. 22. Gatkek had only played more than 12 minutes in a game once this year and is limited offensively due to his 172-pound stature.
Brandon McKissic, Phlandrous Fleming, Anthony Duruji and Myreon Jones, all key members of the rotation, began the second half on the bench and stayed there for the first few minutes.
White’s message – both the verbal and nonverbal forms of it – was received well by the players.
The more inexperienced group came out of the gates with a ton of energy and locked in on defense. Eventually, the veterans trickled back into the game, and they piggybacked on the momentum that the young guys generated.
“Sometimes, honestly, you hate to admit it as a coach, but, sometimes, you are trying to tick a guy off or two,” White said. “You’re trying to make a statement, and ‘Let’s just throw this lineup out there and maybe it will ignite somebody,’ and it did.”
The Gators forced eight turnovers in the first eight minutes of the half, including a stretch where the Cowboys turned it over on four straight possessions and another streak of three consecutive turnovers.
“That’s kind of our identity,” Fleming said. “In the first half, we weren’t showing that. We were laying down, we weren’t being aggressive on defense, we weren’t rotating well, we weren’t boxing [out]. I think the second half we got back to who we’re supposed to be and giving pressure and actually sitting down and guarding.”
UF (13-8, 3-5 SEC) didn’t light the world on fire offensively to start the second half, as they went just 4-for-11 from the field over the first 10 minutes. However, they were able to use those defensive stops to gradually climb back into the game.
Then, when they were trailing 56-52 with 9:56 to go, they caught fire from beyond the arc. Fleming made one to cut the deficit to one.
On their next trip down, Jones buried one from the left corner to give the Gators their first lead since 2-0.
Appleby and Fleming later knocked down triples to expand the lead to 68-61 with four minutes remaining to put the game away.
The better offensive performance in the second half wasn’t just a product of jump shots finally falling, though. They were much more aggressive in attacking the paint and drawing fouls. They entered the double bonus with 10:36 to go. That allowed them to shoot 32 free throws (and make 26) after attempting just nine free throws in the first half.
Those free throws allowed them to still cut into the lead when their shots weren’t falling early in the half. The drives into the paint also sucked in the defense and allowed them to get some more open looks from the perimeter than they did in the first half. They found a way to have an interior presence despite not having a center.
“They’re really aggressive on defense,” Fleming said. “They’re really, really aggressive, but they’re great on-ball defenders. We kept moving the ball, kept moving the ball, get them in close-outs and try to get them off balance. I think we did that in the second half. The first half was kind of shaky.”
Appleby finished the game with a UF career-high of 21 points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals.
“I thought he had great confidence offensively, real swagger, just stepped up, hit some shots,” White said. “Defensively, I thought he tightened up a little bit. Made good decisions. Four-to-two [assist-to-turnover ratio], we’ll take that every game from him. Three steals. He’s been great at the foul line recently. He was very good. One of his better games for sure.”
Fleming had 14 points and six rebounds, and Reeves posted 11 points.
However, Lane was the game’s most valuable player. That might seem crazy if you just look at the box score, as he didn’t score, grab a rebound or dish an assist in 13 minutes.
But his impact was enormous and transcended what stats are able to tell. He guarded at about as high of a level as a coach can ask for, and he was part of the lineup that got the Gators’ comeback started in the second half. He blocked a pair of shots and made a steal.
“I thought Niels Lane was fantastic,” White said. “He played 13 minutes and I believe was plus-14. You’re plus-14 and you take one shot in thirteen minutes, it’s just a good example for all young people and even his teammates that you can affect the game in so many different ways. His energy level in press and in halfcourt was evident, and it spread. It’s crazy how one guy can bring it like that, and it can rub off on the next guy, who can rub off on the next guy.”
Gatkek also had a terrific game despite scoring a modest eight points. He held his own against some much stronger post players and blocked three shots in the second half, including one with under three minutes to go when the Cowboys (10-10, 3-5 Big 12) had a chance to cut the lead to six.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton summed up what changed in the second half very well after the game.
“This was, in my mind, pretty simple: Whatever Mike White said to his team at halftime was about 10 times better than whatever I said to my team,” Boynton said.
Actually, it was White’s words and actions that made the difference.