Gator Basketball Prepared for a Rock Fight Against the Aggies

photo credit - Chris Spears

The paradox of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object comes to mind easily when comparing the way Todd Golden wants the Florida Gators to play and the rock fight that breaks out each time a Southeastern Conference team ventures to College Station to face Buzz Williams and the Texas A&M Aggies today (4 p.m., ESPN2).

Golden wants the Gators (15-6, 5-3 SEC) to turn games into a track meet with a shot going up eight seconds into every possession. Buzz Williams prefers a grind it out, wear you down style. The Gators want to dictate a 160-point pace while the Aggies are content with games settled in the 60s or low 70s.

The numbers are an extension of each coach’s philosophy. The Gators average 85.8 points per game, third best in the SEC, eighth in the nation and on pace to become the highest scoring team in University of Florida history. Only once all season have the Gators been held to fewer than 70 points in a game (66 vs. Tennessee). In their last two games, both overtime wins, the Gators scored 102 against Georgia and 94 against Kentucky.

Texas A&M averages 73.8 per game while holding opponents to 68.4 points. Only Florida Atlantic, Memphis and Kentucky have scored more than 80 points in a game against the Aggies. The Aggies have only scored more than 80 four times. They are dead last in the SEC in both shooting (39 percent) and from the 3-point line (26.7 percent).

It’s no secret what the Aggies will try to do defensively. They push, they shove, they double the ball, cut off passing angles and make opponents take a lot of seconds off the shot clock. When the Aggies have the ball, the bulk of the shots come from guards Wade Taylor IV and Tyrese Radford. They shoot and everyone crashes the boards for second chance opportunities. Nobody in the country does it better on the offensive backboards.

"They do two things incredibly well,” Golden said Friday before the Gators left for the airport to fly to College Station. “They're obviously an amazing rebounding team. I think we're No. 2 nationally right now offensive rebounding, I think they're one. So that's going to be quite the scene on Saturday that way. They get to line a lot, then defensively they do a good job taking you out of what you run. They play like a little matchup zone, they guard different things, they switch a lot. They try to make you uncomfortable, so you're not gonna be able to run your normal offense for most of the game.

“But you’ve got to take advantage of when they trap the ball and when they take chances, which they do a little bit. So different game stylistically. It'll be a lot different than the Kentucky game, that's for sure. It's more similar to the Missouri game, more similar to Mississippi State, teams that really like to get after you defensively. But they're good. They're really tough on their home floor. They beat Kentucky on their home floor. So it's a team, especially with Wade Taylor. They have some weapons and they just have a very physical mentality in terms of the way they play. So that's gonna be the challenge is making sure we go in there and fight the fight properly."

Taylor is third in the Southeastern Conference in scoring at 20 points per game. He is a volume shooter (16.7 shots per game) who only hits 37.1 percent overall and 30.8 percent from the 3-point line, but he gets to the foul line a lot (122 times, second most in the SEC). When Taylor puts the ball on the deck and drives to the rack, he’s very effective dumping the ball off to teammates (3.8 assists per game).

In Al McGuire terminology, Taylor is the head of the snake and he has to be cut off to render the Aggie offense ineffective. Radford averages 13 points per game mostly on getting to the rack. He shoots only 36.9 percent from the field and a miserable 23.7 percent from the 3-point line, but he can be streaky and he’s particularly effective getting offensive rebounds and stickbacks.

The Aggies don’t turn the ball over much and they’re very good about getting to the foul line although they have problems converting once they get there. In the Aggies most recent game, a 71-68 loss to Ole Miss, they made only 12-22 from the line, which negated a 42-32 advantage on the backboards.

Knowing that the Aggies will play a very physical game, it will be critical for the Gators to protect the ball as well as they did in the win over Kentucky (9 turnovers in a 45 minute game) and make their free throws (18-22). Although Florida is only 69 percent from the foul line this season, the Gators have hit 52 of their last 62 attempts.

Another key for the Gators will be making the extra pass. Unselfish play has been critical in the 4-game winning streak the Gators take into tonight’s game. Against Kentucky, Zyon Pullin had eight assists, four of them on Walter Clayton Jr.’s seven made 3-pointers. On the play that sent the Kentucky game into overtime, Pullin drove into the lane, forcing UK defenders to commit to him, then he found Clayton open on the wing for the game-tying 3-pointer.

Riley Kugel had two opportunities that he could have taken the shot late in the game against Kentucky – once with less than a 20 seconds in regulation, the other in overtime – but he deferred on the first by drawing the defender to him before he dumped the ball to Tyrese Samuel, and in overtime by drawing the defender toward him before he found Clayton in the corner for an open three.

“I think the biggest thing is we're just trying to keep it simple,” Golden said. “We're not trying to make hero plays where we're trying to make two-on-one or three-on-one decisions. We're letting the next guy make the play and we did a really good job of that on Wednesday night."

Bracketology, etc.: Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has the Gators a No. 8 seed in the South Regional, facing 9th-seed Saint Mary’s in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Todd Golden played collegiately at Saint Mary’s … The Gators are No. 36 in the NCAA Net Rankings. They’re No. 32 in the current kenpom.com analytics … With 88 assists and only 20 turnovers, Pullin leads the country in assist-to-turnover margin … The Gators continue to lead the country in rebounding at 44.9 per game. The last time a Florida team averaged more than 40 rebounds per game was 1975-76 when they averaged 43.2 per game … At 85.8 points per game, the Gators are two points ahead of the 1999-00 Gators (83.8 points per game) to become the highest scoring team in school history.  

Anticipated starting lineups

FLORIDA (15-6, 5-3 SEC): 6-10 Tyrese Samuel (13.6 points, 8.5 rebounds); 7-1 Micah Handlogten (7.3 points, 7.5 rebounds); 6-4 Will Richard (11.6 points, 4.1 rebounds); 6-2 Walter Clayton Jr. (16.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists); 6-4 Zyon Pullin (15.3 points, 3.8 rebounds. 4.9 assists)

Texas A&M (12-8, 3-4 SEC): 6-7 Solomon Washington (5.3, 5.0 rebounds); 6-11 Wildens Leveque (2.1 points, 3.4 rebounds); 6-7 Jace Carter (6.6 points, 5.3 rebounds); Tyrece Radford (13.0 points, 5.6 rebounds); Wade Taylor IV (20 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists)

Today’s games: FLORIDA (15-6, 5-3 SEC) at Texas A&M (12-8, 3-4 SEC); No. 5 Tennessee (15-5, 5-2 SEC) at No. 6 Kentucky (15-5, 5-3 SEC); No. 16 Auburn (17-4, 6-2 SEC) at Ole Miss (18-3, 5-3 SEC); Mississippi State (14-7, 3-5 SEC) at No. 24 Alabama (15-6, 7-1 SEC); South Carolina (18-3, 6-2 SEC) at Georgia (14-7, 4-4 SEC); Missouri (8-13, 0-8 SEC) at Vanderbilt (5-15, 0-7 SEC)