Gators' Senior Night statement to the SEC: Be afraid, be very afraid

Xaivian Lee had a Senior Night to remember (Photo by Chris Spears)

To our Gator baitmedia.com members: We have been hacked are down right now. Hope to have it back up soon.-ranked Florida really didn’t have to make a statement Wednesday night at the O-Dome, particularly since it already had a share of the Southeastern Conference championship no matter the outcome of the Gators’ encounter with Mississippi State. With best player Tommy Haugh sitting this one out as a precaution, having rolled his ankle back on Saturday against Arkansas, the Gators had a built-in excuse to go through the motions, which is exactly what they did the first eight-and-a-half minutes.

Haugh could have played but Todd Golden chose to sit him out with a road trip to Lexington for a regular season-ending game with Kentucky itching to rematch the Gators at Rupp.

Arrogance on the part of Golden, who preaches that every time the Gators take the floor it should be treated as if it’s the single most important game of the year? It seemed that way when Mississippi State made 10 of its first 13 shots for a 24-14 lead that had the O-Dome the bulk of the folks in the crowd of 10,969 giving each other one of those “what the hell is going on here?” looks.

Granted, some of the early difficulty had to do with Senior Night, which Golden said is almost always a distraction because “it's hard to play well with a lot of emotions, you got family in town.” Golden’s response to the combination of Senior Night and the Haugh injury was to start 7-1 Micah Handlogten at the four (power forward) while moving 6-11 Alex Condon out to the three (wing). A front line of Handlogten, Condon and Big Freaky (6-11 Rueben Chinyelu) at center was certainly mountainous but for every added inch of height over and above Haugh’s 6-9 it was doubly awkward.

“When you start with me at the four and Condo at the three, we’ve never done that even in practice for, like, ever, so definitely took some adjustments,” Handlogten said after acquitting himself rather nicely with 10 points and nine rebounds on Senior Night.

Adjust is what Golden did and tends to do as well as if not better than any coach in the country, but this one seemed every bit as awkward as his starting lineup. He called on freshman CJ Ingram, one of Florida’s mop-up warriors who gets to make contributions when minutes and seconds dwindle in out of hand games. All he did was launch and connect from the 3-point line on back-to-back possessions that brought the Gators back to within a single point.

The Gators were inspired and the O-Dome crowd became loud and intimidating. Ingram’s contributions were part of an 18-0 run that saw the Gators go from 10-down to an 8-point lead over a 6-minute span.

It was brutal to say the least.

Florida’s 47-35 lead at the half was just the warmup for things to come. The Gators played the second half as if they were sending a “be afraid, be very afraid” message to the rest of the Southeastern Conference and the teams that will hear their name called by the NCAA Tournament selection committee a couple of Sundays from now.

When the horn sounded it was a merciful end to a 108-74 pillage and plundering win that should send shivers up and down the spines of any team that gets in the way of this juggernaut that seems to be getting incrementally better with each outing. This one had to be particularly satisfying for Golden, who earned his 100^th win as Florida’s coach. He got there faster than any coach in Florida’s history and that includes Hall of Famers Norm Sloan and Billy Donovan.

It was the tenth straight win for the Gators (24-6, 15-2 SEC), who are the outright champions of the Southeastern Conference. There was a presentation pre-game in which SEC commish Greg Sankey handed over the championship trophy that perhaps seemed a bit premature considering Alabama still had a mathematical chance to split the title with UF. That, too, might have added to the Senior Night distractions but by halftime all the Gators had to do was show up and maintain a lead over Mississippi State since Georgia bushwhacked Alabama in Athens.

Still, it was important for the Gators to finish like champs, which is exactly what they are — and did. First half distractions in the rearview, the second half was an intimidating, muscle-flexing shot across the bow. Not just Mississippi State, mind you, but the other 15 teams that will gather in Nashville next week for the SEC Tournament.

“I think we were just a little caught in the moment,” Golden said post game. “We started a very unique lineup we probably won’t see again ever with those guys, and Mississippi State was hot, you know. They came out and made shots and made us pay for defense that wasn't elite. And I think once we got kind of back to our regular rotations and got kind of comfortable with who was out there, we settled.

“I think they were 10-for-13 from the field to start the game, if I remember correctly, and then they were five for the next 19. So, [we] really settled in on the defensive end, got stops, and as we discussed about nearly every time I'm up here, when we guard and we get clean rebounds, we're really tough to keep out of transition.”

From that 10-13 shooting start, Mississippi State was just 17-47 the rest of the way. The Gators outrebounded Mississippi State 23-15 in the first half. In the second half, the Gators grabbed 30 rebounds. Mississippi State had (count ‘em) 11.

It was all about the adjustments. The starting lineup was a deadend street because it put players in unfamiliar situations. So when Golden started shuffling players in and out, each time creating different combinations that left Mississippi State dazed and confused, the Gators became that team nobody in his right mind wants to play.

In the absence of Haugh, the team’s leading scorer for the season, Alex Condon picked up the slack on the inside with 26 points seven rebounds and three assists. Rueben Chinyelu posted his 18^th double-double of the season with 11 points and 16 rebounds to go with two assists, three blocked shots and a steal. Handlogten’s 10 points and nine rebounds were supplemented by three assists and a blocked shot.

Out on the perimeter where Mississippi State tried bully tactics that the zebra crew of Pat Adams, Lucas Santos and Will Howard seemed to largely ignore, the Gators caught fire once Ingram came off the bench firing away. Lee turned Senior Night into a night to remember for himself and family that came down to Toronto to watch. Lee finished with 19 points, five rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Lee’s inconsistencies in the first half of the season had the experts believing the Gators were perhaps overrated. The way he’s played ever since the Vanderbilt game has turned heads as he’s starting to look like an improved version of the player everyone thought the Gators were getting when he transferred in after a rather spectacular career at Princeton.

“He's been really, really good all conference play, really, and it started with the Vanderbilt game,” Golden said. “I can't remember what the date was in that game, but he was exceptional, hit a huge three that helped us win that game. Over the last month, he's just been special. I mean, I think we all saw it tonight, just the ball control he has, the quickness, his ability to penetrate and keep his dribble alive, and now he's just so confident and comfortable out there. You know, he kind of gets to his spots and does what he wants. So he's -- what was he? – 5-for-7 from two tonight? He’s shooting like 65 percent from two in conference play, something insane like that. He’s playing fantastically well. And obviously him and Boogie [Fland] emerging the way they have has allowed us to really take off and become a really good team.”

The Fland-Lee backcourt can no longer be viewed as a liability but instead is becoming elite. Fland’s night was 10 points, three rebounds, three assists and a steal. He didn’t turn the ball over. Lee turned it over just one time.

And, off the bench came Urban Klavzar (10 points), Isaiah Brown (9) and CJ Ingram (8). Klavzar and Brown have become productive staples off the bench. Ingram simply gives opposing coaches one more migraine.

There at the end during mop-up time the roof of the O-Dome just about got blown off when walk-on Cooper Josefsberg knocked down a three and 7-9 Olivier Rioux got into the game, causing what Golden said was “a full circle moment” for the Gators who were 5-4 and being written off by all the experts and fans alike after a 5-4 start.

Golden would have loved to win those games, but he was never discouraged or deterred by the outcome, noting that he “talked to the guys after the game, just how much better we've gotten over the course of the year. I think that's something that kind of gets lost in this day and age. Like, if you're not super successful early, people don't think you're any good. Our team's gotten a lot better. We were good early, we were okay, but we are not anywhere near the same team we were in November, December, and I feel like we're playing some really good basketball right now."

Really good is 19-2 since losing to UConn on December 9. Really good is storming through the SEC for a 3-game lead in league play with one game to go. Really good is all the bracket gurus putting the Gators on the No. 2 line and conceding that they might just be a No. 1 if they win at Rupp Saturday and then turn Nashville into the Gator Invitational for the second straight year.

Really good is a coach with 100 wins already, a national championship last year, an SEC championship this year, and a clear path to go back-to-back as the last team standing at the end of the year.

Really good translates to the rest of the college basketball world these words: Be afraid. Be very afraid because the big bad Gators are hungry for more.

ELSEWHERE IN THE SEC

Georgia (21-9, 9-8 SEC) 98, No. 16 Alabama (22-8, 12-5 SEC) 88: Georgia put an end to Alabama’s 9-game winning streak behind a 32-point night by freshman Kanon Catchings. Catchings hit 7-13 from the 3-point line to go with six rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot. Georgia hit 13-29 from the 3-point line. Alabama launched 42 threes, made 16 and was outrebounded by Georgia 40-30. Labaron Philon Jr. led Alabama scoring with 26 points.

No. 23 Tennessee (21-9, 11-6 SEC) 78, South Carolina (12-18, 3-14 SEC) 59: JP Estrella and Felix Okpara picked up the scoring slack for Tennessee, which played without stud freshman Nate Ament. Estrella scored 22 while Okpara added 20. Ja’Kobi Gillespie had 12 assists for the Vols. Meechie Johnson was South Carolina’s leading scorer with 20.

No. 24 Vanderbilt (23-7, 10-7 SEC) 89, Ole Miss (12-18, 4-13 SEC) 86, OT: Tyler Tanner scored 10 of Vanderbilt’s 13 overtime points and 34 overall to lead the Commodores past Ole Miss. Patton Pinkins had a chance to tie the game with two seconds remaining but his 3-pointer clanged off the rim. Vanderbilt had a chance to win the game in regulation but Duke Miles’ contested layup wouldn’t drop. For Ole Miss, which has lost seven games by seven or fewer points, Pinkins was the leading scorer with 16 points.

Texas A&M (20-10, 10-7 SEC) 96, Kentucky 19-11, 9-8 SEC) 85: Rylan Griffen and Ruben Dominguez came off the bench to combine for 27 points from the 3-point line, leading the Aggies to a decisive win over Kentucky. Giffin hit 4-8 of his threes while scoring 21. Dominguez was 5-8 from three, scoring 17. The Aggies hit 13-28 from the 3-point line for the game.

Auburn (16-14, 7-10 SEC) 88, LSU (15-15, 3-14 SEC) 74: Tahaad Petiford had his best game of the season with 27 points, two rebounds, six assists and four steals as Auburn pulled away from LSU in the second half to go two games over .500 for the season. Defensively, Auburn held LSU’s Max Mackinnon to three points. Mike Nwoko was LSU’s leading scorer with 19 points.

Oklahoma (16-14, 6-11 SEC) 80, Missouri (20-10, 10-7 SEC) 64: The Sooners shot 62 percent (28-45) overall and 12-22 (55 percent) from the 3-point line while assuring a winning record for the regular season. Missouri turned the ball over 16 times and was just 8-24 from the 3-point line. Five Sooners scored in double figures led by Jalon Jones with 13. Missouri’s Mark Mitchell scored 17.

Tonight’s game

Texas (18-11, 9-7 SEC) at No. 20 Arkansas (21-9, 11-5 SEC)