The Gators’ exhibition game against Division-2 Embry-Riddle on Monday evening was a fairly typical preseason game. There were some really good things to like about how the Gators performed, some bad things to be disappointed about and some ugly things to be concerned about.
Some players looked like All-Americans, while others didn’t live up to the hype that they’ve generated throughout the offseason. Coach Mike White tried about a million different lineup combinations as he continues to discover what his team’s strengths are.
When the final horn sounded, Florida had defeated Embry-Riddle, 80-57. Of course, the final score doesn’t mean a whole lot in games like these. Instead, White said that his team getting to play in front of a crowd for the first time in nearly eight months was the biggest benefit that they derived from this game, especially considering that they have seven newcomers on their roster.
“The game environment more than anything, taking shots in front of other people, making an extra pass in front of our fans and on TV, struggling through adversity, communicating, again, in front of other people,” White said. “I thought we did a lot of good things, really. I thought we shared it really well. We didn’t shoot it great, of course. We didn’t finish at the rim very well.
“Defensively, I thought we had stretches where we were pretty good, of course. And then, as you’ll find out in a lot of these early games, especially exhibition games, there’s a lot to work on.”
There were a few positives for the Gators to build on. The selflessness and willingness to pass up a good shot for a better shot for somebody else that White has seen in practices translated to the exhibition. The ball movement was superb at times, and they dished 18 assists and committed just nine turnovers.
They shot the ball very well from beyond the arc in the second half to the tune of 8-for-19 (42.1 percent). They also used their length and athleticism advantages to force 21 Eagles turnovers, which they converted into 27 points.
Individually, guards Brandon McKissic and Tyree Appleby and forward Anthony Duruji stole the spotlight.
McKissic, a transfer from UMKC, got the start at point guard and scored 20 points on 7-for-13 shooting, including 5-for-8 from distance. He went on a torrid stretch in the second half that saw him score 14 points in less than five minutes, with four made three-pointers. His hot hand helped turn a 12-point game into an 18-point game with seven minutes to go.
“We put each other on notice,” McKissic said. “We [saw] it was kind of getting a little bit too close, and our energy was a little dead. We huddled up, and we were just like, ‘Hey, let’s kick it up a notch.’ We hold each other accountable because that’s who we are. We’re going to hold each other accountable regardless of the score or time. We just talked to each other and said ‘Pick it up,’ and the ball just kept coming my way, and I had open looks. There wasn’t much else to it.
“My teammates, they found me in my open spots, and I just knocked them down. Just the same way that I found [Phlandrous Fleming], the way [Appleby] found Myreon [Jones]. We just look for each other. We’re really unselfish. We really do just want to play and want to win. So, I feel like there’s just a bunch of unselfishness, and we just picked up our energy on defense.”
Duruji said that McKissic serves as a spark for the rest of the team when they need it because of his stellar defensive skills and his ability to put points on the board in a hurry.
“Brandon can do everything,” Duruji said. “He’s a very unselfish player, as you can see, and he’s the kind of energy guy who gets us going, especially on the defensive end. He’s a pit bull, but he can shoot the ball well, as you’ve seen.”
Appleby came off the bench to score 13 points on 4-for-8 shooting, all from three-point land, and he also dished seven assists. Perhaps most significantly, he only committed two turnovers in a team-high 28 minutes. Turnovers were his biggest weakness a year ago.
“It’s something that I talk to him about as much as anything,” White said. “With Colin [Castleton], it’s something different. With Phlan Fleming, it’s something different. All of these guys have different areas of emphasis, of course. It’s something that’s become really important to Ty, taking care of the basketball, his decisions, making simple plays. I thought he was really good tonight.”
Like McKissic, Appleby made some key plays that helped the Gators stretch out their lead after a slow start. Late in the first half, he stole the ball on two consecutive possessions, which led to a McKissic three-pointer and a Jones layup. He later turned a defensive rebound into a fast break, which led to a dunk for Tuongthach Gatkek. Those three plays helped turn a 17-17 tie into a 31-25 Florida lead at the break.
Appleby created offense for himself in the second half, knocking down a pair of threes, including one that became a four-point play, in a span of 25 seconds to give the Gators a double-digit lead.
After starting 17 games last season, White is counting on Appleby to be a spark off of the bench to start this season now that they have some more backcourt depth with the addition of three transfers.
Appleby hasn’t had any trouble adjusting to his new role at all, according to his teammates.
“He’s a great competitor,” McKissic said. “He’s one of those other guys who gets us going. He definitely leads us, and I think he’s going to have a great season. You can see what he does. He just brings that energy, and he’s that spark to our team.
“He handled that well. He’s an older guy, so he handles it with maturity, and you already know what Tyree’s going to give you every night. He’s going to be tough. He’s going to be physical. He’s going to be grimy and gritty. So, that’s just who you see. So, I think he’s handling it really well.”
Duruji had about as efficient of a night on the offensive end as possible. In fact, he didn’t miss a shot, going 4-for-4 on two-pointers, 1-for-1 on threes and 5-for-5 from the free-throw stripe to finish with 16 points. He also played with a consistently high motor and took advantage of his size advantage to grab seven rebounds before fouling out after 20 minutes.
White said that Duruji’s big night was a product of the way he’s worked over the past few months. He may have surprised Gators fans with his scoring production, but he didn’t surprise his team.
“In our postgame conversation, that was a topic that we covered,” White said. “I asked the guys, ‘Who’s surprised that Anthony played the way he played tonight?’ and no one raised their hand. Why? Because that’s what we see every day. So, it’s not a surprise. I’m not talking home runs and highlights and that type, but just his approach has been really good, consistently, for a long time. Six, seven weeks, he hasn’t had a bad day. He hasn’t had a moment where he sulked, where he’s made an excuse, where he just seems out of it.
“He’s just played with maturity. He’s playing like a veteran, high-character guy, and it carried over for him tonight. I certainly hope I don’t jinx that. If he continues to play like this, he’s going to give us a chance, and he’s going to give himself a chance to have a good year.”
Castleton also had a solid night, scoring 10 points and pulling down nine rebounds, though he shot just 2-for-9 from the field, including 1-for-3 from beyond the arc.
White said that having four guys scoring in double figures shows how versatile this team could be on the offensive end.
“I think that those teams that present that level of balance are harder to defend,” he said. “Teams that pass it and take care of the ball, that execute together, that take our shot, I just think that they can be harder to scout. I don’t think it’s a bad thing when you don’t have a guy who’s not necessarily an elite scorer but you’ve got a few guys, if not more than a few, that are good scorers. They can score it in different ways.”
Of course, there were also plenty of negatives as well. That’s to be expected this early in the season and with this many new players still trying to get a feel for each other.
Despite getting good looks for most of the night, they only shot 38 percent as a team, including 32.4 percent from deep. The ball got stagnant at times in the first half, which caused them to rely too much on winning one-on-one matchups off of the dribble.
“I thought we showed it in glimpses that this is a better passing team than we’ve had here in a few years, if not a while,” White said. “Didn’t pass it quite as well today. I thought that Embry-Riddle had something to do with that, of course. We bobbled a lot of balls today for whatever reason. Probably just the first-game jitters, the exhibition game jitters.
“That said, though, I do think we probably could’ve had a few more assists if we would have made some shots. We passed it fairly well, but I think we’ll all see at times this team having games where we’re saying we passed it really well.”
Despite Embry-Riddle not playing anyone taller than 6-foot-7, the Gators only outrebounded them by two.
They also had some defensive lapses that led to wide-open shots.
All of that combined to make this a competitive game until about the 11-minute mark in the second half, which undoubtedly made UF fans feel a little uneasy and concerned.
It might not have been the prettiest exhibition win ever, but it was a successful one. They won by 23 points, got all 14 of their players into the game and avoided any major injuries.
Now the Gators will turn their attention to the real thing. They’ll use the film from the Embry-Riddle game as they prepare to tip off their regular season against Elon on Nov. 9.
“We saw some stuff at halftime,” White said. “We saw some stuff defensively that we didn’t do a very good job with, and we’ll see a bunch here over the next couple days. Really break this thing down closely both offensively and defensively and continue to learn really throughout the year but especially in these early ones.”