When the Gators hosted Vanderbilt on Jan. 22, they turned in one of the best defensive performances of the Mike White era.
They limited the Commodores to 29 percent shooting and only gave up three field goals in the second half and none in the final 10:47. Vanderbilt only scored 13 points in the second half, and the Gators cruised to an easy 61-42 win. Those 42 points were the second-fewest scored by an SEC opponent during White’s seven seasons.
There’s a huge caveat that has to be taken into account when reflecting on that game, however. Conference scoring leader Scotty Pippen Jr. played only five minutes in the first half due to foul trouble and never found his groove en route to just five points on 1-for-10 shooting.
So, with the Gators (18-11, 8-8 SEC) set to play at Vanderbilt (14-14, 6-10) on Tuesday night in a must-win game relative to their NCAA Tournament chances, White is expecting a much more competitive game. They probably won’t get fortunate by avoiding a big game from Pippen twice in the same season.
“We were fortunate that he got in foul trouble, honestly,” White said. “He’s one of the best players in the country and, obviously, one of the best players in our league. He didn’t play much. He never got into a rhythm. We expect a completely different performance from him and from their team. Most improved team in the league, in my opinion, a team that’s playing better than they were on that night.
“[Liam] Robbins is now a big factor for those guys. They’re playing much bigger; they’re playing differently. They’re very good. We’re going to have to play just as well if not better than we played at home to have a chance down the stretch in Nashville.”
Pippen has been one of the best players in the SEC throughout his three seasons, but he’s on a hot streak even by his standards of late.
He scored 32 points in 38 minutes at Mississippi State on Saturday. In the five games prior to that, he scored 19, 23, 29, 24 and 26 points, with at least four assists in four of those games. He also scored a season-high 33 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished five assists in a close loss at Kentucky in early February.
“He makes a lot of things seem pretty easy,” White said. “I don’t know him, but he just seems incredibly cerebral. Split-second thinker, ahead of the game, sees it, knows how to draw fouls, elite passer, good shooter. I think Coach [Jerry Stackhouse] puts him in position as well. They run good actions. He’s kind of the head of the snake, the floor general with a lot of the ball-screen stuff that they do. It’s been a heck of a run. We’re going to have to be really good to slow him down.”
It will help the Gators’ chances if they can replicate the way that they played offensively in their 84-72 defeat of Georgia on Saturday. In that one, they committed a season-low six turnovers and dished 20 assists, which tied for their second-most in a game this season. They made 14 of 31 threes, their best three-point shooting game of the season at 45.2 percent.
“I liked our tempo, our decisions,” White said. “I thought we were sped up a little bit early game, and I thought we really slowed down with our decision-making. That’s about as clean as we’ve played offensively. That said, now we’re back on the road in an environment that ought to be pretty hard to play in against a team that’s playing really well. If you replicate it, obviously, it gives us a really good chance, but that’ll be easier talked about than doing, of course, against a Vandy team who’s really playing well.
“Starting with turnovers, though, that’s one that’s a little bit easier to control. We’d like to hit 14 threes every game, and we’re going to shoot some threes. Hopefully, we get some open looks. Hopefully, some of them go down, but the ball security, the ball decisions, that was pretty impressive by this group. We’ve made a big jump in that category the past few months, and we’d love to finish as strong as possible in that category.”
Phlandrous Fleming spearheaded that terrific day on offense. Playing in his hometown, he scored a season-high 27 points on 11-for-18 shooting (4-for-9 from three), secured five rebounds and was credited with four assists.
White doesn’t expect him to shoot at that robust clip every time, but he does feel comfortable with what Fleming will bring to the court on a consistent basis.
“I’ve got confidence that he’s going to play well,” White said. “He’s always going to compete at a high level. He’s always going to play with toughness. He got into a really good rhythm offensively, and he’s worked really hard on his stroke all year. He’s spent a lot of time in the gym. I thought his teammates did a good job of connecting with him as well off of some cuts and off of some inside-out action. The ball moved. Again, a bunch of assists and not many turnovers. Maybe he’s got a couple more of those left in him.”
The Gators might need him or someone else to have another game like that again on Tuesday night. They’re likely going to have to beat the best version of Pippen and the Commodores this time around.