Two high-intensity practices set table for Florida's first-round rout
· Yahoo Sports
TAMPA — They wanted to win another SEC Tournament title, enter the NCAA Tournament on a 14-game winning streak and sustain the momentum that carried them through most of January, all of February and the first half of March.
But then the Florida men’s basketball team sustained a semifinal loss to Vanderbilt on March 14.
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Worry or work? The Gators went back to work. On March 16-17, Florida grinded out two practices in Gainesville before traveling to Tampa.
“We had to get back to who we are,” guard Boogie Fland said.
Who the Gators are was on full display in their 114-55 — yes, 114-55! — first-round win over poor Prairie View A&M.
In the history of the NCAAs, only one game had a more lopsided margin than the Gators’ 59-point win; Loyola beat Tennessee Tech by 69 points (111-42) in 1963.
The Gators turned a 15-15 game into a 60-21 halftime lead. They shot 75% from the field in the first half. For the game, they outscored Prairie View 64-10 in the paint. Thirteen UF players scored points, including seven in double figures. Even 7-foot-8 freshman Olivier Rioux got in on the fun with a dunk.
Yes, Prairie View was overmatched, but there is something impressive when a team is mega-dominant.
“It was a lot of fun being out there with the guys,” Gators forward Thomas Haugh said after UF advanced to face Iowa on March 22 (7:10 p.m., TBS). “I think that (Vanderbilt) loss lit a bit of a fire underneath us.”
Practices re-ignited fire
Did UF really need its collective fire re-ignited? Maybe a tablespoon of lighter fluid was all it took to get the Gators out of their three-game slumber, which was a bad second half at Kentucky, a sloppy 40 minutes in their rematch against the Wildcats and their 91-74 thumping by Vanderbilt.
But if the Gators felt they needed a re-charge, we can’t question them. And that’s what coach Todd Golden administered in the aforementioned two practices.
Let senior Micah Handlogten explain.
“We kind of asked (Golden) to (crank up the intensity),” he said. “The same thing happened when we lost to Auburn (on Jan. 24). We wanted to go hard in practice because we didn’t want that to happen again so when we lost to Vandy, we wanted to get after it. We want to win six straight.”
The first practice, Handlogten told me, “was non-contact, but it was high energy and high effort, sprinting up and down the court. That was a tough one.”
The second practice?
“We played the entire practice, 5-on-5, going after each other, high intensity, trying to get better,” Handlogten said. “It showed up (against Prairie View A&M).”
Or as guard Isaiah Brown said: “We definitely got things right and set the record straight.”
Prairie View A&M was literally helpless. His team trailing 33-15, coach Byron Smith said during his broadcast interview, “We need some help from the Lord.”
It only arrived in the form of the final buzzer.
The first UF explosion was an 18-0 run. The second was 17-0 to finish the first half.
Wow, it was fun to watch. When the Gators get out in transition, name a team that is better nationally. It doesn’t matter who starts or finishes the break, the passes and finishes are crisply executed.
It’s also fun for the players.
“We have so many dynamic players who can do so many dynamic things,” Handlogten said.
Said Brown: “It was amazing to put up numbers like that. It isn’t normal.”
No it is not.
Playing with great intent
When humming at the peak of its powers, UF does so many things well.
We know the Gators will bludgeon teams on the glass (they outrebounded Prairie View A&M 54-20) and we know they will be dominant in the paint and in transition (18-2). But if they manage the basketball like it did against the Panthers (seven turnovers) and shoot from 3-point territory like they did (10 of 22), book your hotel reservation for Indianapolis and the Final Four in next two weeks.
“We just got back to how we played to finish the SEC (regular season),” Haugh said.
And just in time because the competition gets more difficult in the second round against Iowa. The Hawkeyes, which advanced with a win over Clemson, is a try-hard, get-to-the-foul-line team. But they don’t have the speed, rebounding and play-making to compete with Florida. The Gators should roll.
After UF opened league play with a loss at Missouri on Jan. 3, it won five consecutive games to course-correct the season. After UF lost at home to Auburn, it reeled off 10 straight wins. Now after the loss to Vanderbilt, UF knows it has the goods to win six straight and repeat as national champions.
Pounding Prairie View A&M was just the start.
“We played with great intent,” Golden said. “When we do that, we’re pretty tough.”
Championship-winning tough.
Contact O’Halloran at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Look out fellow NCAA contenders, Florida has re-discovered stride