# Florida Gators Eye 20 Wins, 10 in SEC Basketball Play

Gators close in on 20 regular season wins, 10 in SEC play

Will Richard for 3 (credit UAA)

Okay, so Florida’s 77-64 win over Vanderbilt wasn’t anything close to the best game the Gators have played this season, but it didn’t have to be. At this stage of the 18-game grind that is the Southeastern Conference portion of the schedule, the only thing that matters is getting the win and moving on to whatever is next. In this case, next for the Gators (19-8, 9-5 SEC) is Missouri (8-19, 0-14 SEC), which seems to be doing its dead level best to run the SEC schedule in reverse. That game is Wednesday night and should the Gators come away with a win, they may have their guarantee they won’t be sweating bullets on Selection Sunday in three weeks.

The combination of 20 wins in the regular season including 10 in SEC play is rather powerful. With four SEC games remaining, two at the O-Dome and two on the road, the Gators are in rather good shape for moving up in the NCAA Tournament brackets. Both Joe Lunardi (ESPN) and Jerry Palm (CBS), who are the kings of bracketology, have the Gators on the No. 8 line but that is subject to change if the Gators can finish strong in the final two weeks before the SEC Tournament in Nashville. The 20-10 formula is the likely guarantee of an NCAA bid. Every win beyond that makes the Gators a stronger seed.

Florida’s win combined with Kentucky’s 117-95 win over Alabama tightened up the Southeastern Conference race and moved the Gators within two games of co-leaders Alabama (19-8, 11-3 SEC) and Tennessee (21-6, 11-3 SEC), within one of South Carolina (22-5, 10-4 SEC) and Auburn (21-6, 10-4 SEC). A top four finish in the regular season will give the Gators the double bye for the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The top four teams avoid playing day one and day two of the tournament.  

Saturday’s win over Vanderbilt could have been and probably should have been more of a blowout, but the Gators took charge from the opening minute and were never challenged. This is despite Zyon Pullin’s string of 22 straight games scoring in double figures ending plus, for the second straight game and perhaps reasons only Todd Golden and Riley Kugel know for sure, the most explosive player on the Florida roster was a virtual no show (three minutes, two points).

The Gators were outrebounded for the second straight game, this time 39-38. Vandy shot and missed a bunch of jump shots that created long rebounds. To their credit, the Commodores did a far better job of scrambling for long rebounds that were 50-50 balls.

“I’d say some of that’s on the guards,” Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. said. “That’s the guards’ fault. The guards, we can do a better job blocking out.”

By staying even with the Gators on the backboards and a rash of ticky tacky fouls against the Gators that created a constant parade to the free throw line by the Commodores in the second half, Vandy was able to trim nine points off a lead that swelled to as much as 22 in the second half. It was aggravating to see the free flowing game of the first half reduced to one whistle after another, but even with all the foul calls against them, the Gators were very good on defense.

“I thought this was one of our better defensive efforts in awhile,” Golden said. “We held them to 35 percent from the field, didn’t shoot well from three. We fouled too much in the second half – sent them to the line 23 times – which was frustrating but in the big picture I thought we gave ourselves a really good chance by the way we locked in, and against a team like Vandy and the sets they run it’s more about concepts, understanding what your matchup against certain guys, what you are willing to give up, what you are not, and which guys are no threes allowed guys. I thought the guys are locked into the personnel today.”

The Gators didn’t get many chances to get out and run and their 10 offensive rebounds were only converted into 13 points but the ball moved and there was no shortage of open shots. The Gators shot 46.7 percent overall from the field (28-60) and 9-24 (37.5 percent) from the 3-point line. The Gators finished with 17 assists on 28 made baskets.

In the game’s opening minutes, the ball movement was spectacular as the Gators moved out to a 19-11 lead with 12:13 to go in the half. The lead expanded to 10 for the first time (23-13) on a Denzel Aberdeen free throw with 7:30 remaining. A layup by Pullin with 3:59 left doubled up the score (32-16). The Gators led 35-20 at the half.

“I think we had nine assists and one turnover at one point to start the game and just that tone of unselfishness was set and I thought it carried on for the whole game,” Golden said.

Although Pullin’s shot wasn’t dropping, he had six assists and only one turnover. This was a game he didn’t need to score because he was too busy directing traffic on the offensive end for the Gators while making sure the ball moved to open shooters. While Pullin was on the floor, the Gators had a 25-point advantage over the Commodores.

“Listen, I'm just not sure how many point guards out there in America you’d rather have right now,” Golden said. “You know, the way he runs the game, runs the team, controls the game, just so good with the ball. You know, like when he turns it over, you're like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ you know what happened on that play you know when normal point guards get two or three in a game and you're okay with it.”

Will Richard led the Gators with 21 points to with four rebounds and three assists. Richard went 5-9 from the 3-point line. Clayton scored 19 with three rebounds and two assists while Tyrese Samuel scored 15 on 7-9 shooting from the field. He also had six rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots. The Gators also got eight points and nine rebounds from Alex Condon and seven points and two rebounds from Thomas Haugh.

Next up: Missouri (8-19, 0-14 SEC)

SEC BASKETBALL

Saturday’s scores: No. 24 FLORIDA (19-8, 9-5 SEC) 77, Vanderbilt (7-20, 2-12 SEC) 64; No. 17 Kentucky (19-8, 9-5 SEC) 117, No. 13 Alabama (19-8, 11-3 SEC) 95; No. 14 Auburn (21-6, 10-4 SEC) 97, Georgia (15-12, 5-9 SEC) 76; No. 20 South Carolina (22-5, 10-4 SEC) 72, Ole Miss (19-8, 6-8 SEC) 59; Mississippi State (19-8, 8-6 SEC) 87, LSU (14-13, 6-8 SEC) 67;  Arkansas (14-13, 5-9 SEC) 88, Missouri (8-19, 0-14 SEC) 73

Tuesday’s games: No. 17 Kentucky (19-8, 9-5 SEC) at Mississippi State (19-8, 8-6 SEC); Georgia (15-12, 5-9 SEC) at LSU (14-13, 6-8 SEC); Vanderbilt (7-20, 2-12, SEC) at Arkansas (14-13, 5-9 SEC)

Wednesday’s games: Missouri (8-19, 0-14 SEC) at No. 24 FLORIDA (19-8, 9-5 SEC); No, 14 Auburn (21-6, 10-4 SEC) at No. 5 Tennessee (21-6, 11-3 SEC); NO. 13 Alabama (19-8, 11-3 SEC) at Ole Miss (19-8, 6-8 SEC); No. 20 South Carolina (22-5, 10-4 SEC) at Texas A&M (15-12, 6-8 SEC)

SEC in KenPom analytics: 5. Auburn; 6. Tennessee; 8. Alabama; 18. Kentucky; 26. Mississippi State; 28. FLORIDA; 47. South Carolina; 57. Texas A&M; 74. Ole Miss; 83. Georgia; 89. LSU; 116. Arkansas; 147. Missouri; 202. Vanderbilt