The Missouri Tigers were able to catch the Gators off-guard in the regular season but the Florida Gators were able to get sweet revenge in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament coming away with a comfortable 95-81 win. Just before the opening tip it was announced that Missouri’s Mark Mitchell, a powerful 6’9” forward who gave the Gators a lot of trouble in their loss, would be missing due to injury and right then it seemed like it could be a tough night for the Tigers and while they stuck around for much of the game with some inspired play from their guards ultimately Florida’s shotmaking was too much. With the win the Gators will advance to take on the winner of Alabama and Kentucky, a game taking place later tonight.
Playing To The Strengths
This year Florida has prided themselves on having one of if not the best backcourt in the country with Walter Clayton, Alijah Martin, Will Richard, and Denzel Aberdeen, and they learned on the group on Friday with excellent results. To start things off Will Richard was on fire hitting his first three jumpers to score 8 of the Gators’ first 11 points on his way to finishing with 17. Next, Walter Clayton did his thing and started hitting ridiculously deep threes off the dribble, setting up his 18 points on the night. After he had his turn, Alijah Martin started taking it to the rim with authority finishing with 17 points. When this trio is playing like this there aren’t many teams that can keep up with the Gators and we saw this on display against Missouri who was able to go shot for shot for a couple of minutes–but ultimately not the entirety of the game. Oftentimes it’s shotmaking guards that win games in March and that’s exactly what the Gators had on Friday.
Area For Improvement
Despite scoring 95 points on 62% shooting from the field, it wasn’t all roses for Florida on the offensive end. They shockingly had double-digit turnovers in the first half and finished the game with 16 giveaways, essentially the only reason they didn’t win this game in absolute blowout fashion. Florida has had issues with turnovers at various times this season and pretty much all of the scenarios came into play at some point against Missouri. Walter Clayton got picked cleanly while trying to dribble up the floor, Rueben Chinyelu traveled due to sloppy footwork, and Will Richard threw the ball away trying ambitious skip passes over the defense. Luckily the shotmaking was so good when the Gators were able to put up attempts without turning the ball over so it didn’t ultimately hurt them, but they will hopefully take the reminder once again that they need to be more secure with the basketball.
Extra Motivation
Going into the SEC Tournament head coach Todd Golden referenced that the team felt slighted by several of the awards voting in the league and they were going to use it as motivation. There were several votes that Florida took issue with, one of which being the Sixth Man Of The Year award. The Florida program thought that forward Thomas Haugh deserved the honor, but it ended up going to Missouri’s Caleb Grill. Whether or not he needed the extra motivation Friday, Haugh played some of his best basketball coming off the pine to give the Gators a boost scoring 16 points while adding 7 rebounds and 5 assists to absolutely stuff the stat sheet. Haugh always gives the Gators a boost off the bench with his energy and while he doesn’t get to be on the court for the opening tip he is always out there for the biggest moments and he showed why once again.
Final Thoughts
Without Mark Mitchell it was going to be a huge challenge for Missouri to be competitive with the Gators, but Florida did a great job at making sure the game was never close. Their athleticism and shot making absolutely shone through in a game that was at times sloppy which could be a great sign for the kind of games they could see in the NCAA Tournament. The turnovers remain a cause for concern, but if the Gators are going to shoot 62% from the field they are going to win on most nights–even if they kick the ball around a bunch. They’ll now kick back to watch Alabama-Kentucky and see who they’ll take on Saturday.