Sooners Hand Gators First Loss Of Season

On a night plagued by offensive droughts and defensive miscommunications the Gators were somewhat lucky to keep things as close as they ultimately were, falling to the Oklahoma Sooners by a score of 74-67. The Sooners had a 10-point lead with only a few minutes remaining when the Gators stormed back on the back of a pair of ridiculous off the dribble threes to cut the deficit to 2 but the Sooners then took control, getting a bucket off a slip screen set they had got the Gators on a number of times throughout the night, and never looked back. This is Florida’s first loss of the season, bringing their record to 6-1. 

 

Down To Earth

 

Colin Castleton ended the night with a statline that actually looks rather impressive (14 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks) but he struggled for much of the night, partially evidenced by his 6 turnovers. Oklahoma frantically doubled him in the low post which led to a number of turnovers, and frustration, and it kept Castleton from ever really getting into a rhythm. Teammates ended up finding him for a couple of easy buckets around the rim which contributed to his point total but he generally wasn’t able to generate much on his own like he has been able to for much of the season. Oklahoma did a great job of denying Castleton the ball and making his life difficult and it kept him from playing to his potential.

 

Defensive Struggles

 

Florida was scrambling all night defensively, a result of some incredible game planning by Sooners head coach Porter Moser. He knew exactly what Florida was going to do in pick and roll defense and was prepared to exploit it, something he did over, and over, and over again. The Gators play a hedging style of defense that brings two defenders to the ball handler and forces a number of rotations and the Sooners continually manipulate Florida’s defense before making an easy swing and then dump off pass to the roll man, tactically picking apart Florida’s defense with ease. The fact that they were able to do it repeatedly is fairly concerning, particularly now that it’s on film for Florida’s future opponents. 

 

Offensive Woes

 

While the defense wasn’t great, Florida’s offense wasn’t much better. They finished the game shooting only 42% from the field and perhaps more importantly, 16.7% from three. Throughout Porter Moser’s coaching career he has played five out offense, which the Gators have started running this year, and knew exactly how to counteract it, blowing up Florida’s offensive actions and forcing them into tough shots at the end of shot clocks. When the Gators did end up getting a decent shot (usually from three), they were ice cold. Tyree Appleby was 2-10, Myreon Jones was 1-6, and Brandon McKissic was 1-4, numbers that just aren’t going to give the Gators a chance to win if they aren’t excellent in every other facet of the game. Florida lacks a go-to scorer when the offense gets stuck and it will occasionally make for some problems like we witnessed on Wednesday.

 

Final Thoughts

 

This was a tough loss for the Gators but if you’re going to take a tough loss this is a good time to do it. In terms of making this a learning experience, the Gators definitely need to figure out how to make their offense work when their three-point shots aren’t falling. Florida didn’t look particularly interested in running their offense after the first few minutes of the game when Oklahoma blew up all their actions and it led to Florida doing a lot of isolation basketball and a lot of one on one post ups. They don’t have enough overwhelming offensive talent to make that style work, so they’ll need to run half court offense that generates good looks. Oklahoma is a solid basketball team so losing to them on the road isn’t going to end up hurting the Gators from a resume standpoint, so this game is all about how they can learn and try to improve moving forward.

 

Eric Fawcett
Eric is a basketball coach and writer from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His work has been found at NBA international properties, ESPN, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Lindy's and others. He loves zone defenses, the extra pass, and a 30 second shot clock. Growing up in Canada, an American channel showing SEC basketball games was his first exposure to Gator hoops, and he has been hooked ever since. You can follow him on Twitter at @ericfawcett_.