Kelly Rae has the Gators believing "We are enough"

Gator Bait Photo by Chris Spears

From the moment she took over as the interim basketball coach for Florida’s women’s team, Kelly Rae Finley has never wavered with her message to the Gators. “We are enough,” she says and it’s difficult to get through a conversation with her about this team that has embraced her as their commander-in-chief without hearing those three words.

For a team that spent the three previous years enduring way too much whether we’re talking abusive behavior from the former coach or too many beatdowns at the hands of Florida opponents, those words started out as symbols of emotional rescue. Now that the Gators are proving they belong among the best in the Southeastern Conference and not among the bottom feeders, which is what they were predicted to be back in the preseason, “We are enough” has taken on an entirely different meaning.

Kiki Smith, who burned Tennessee for 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals to lead the Gators (16-6, 6-3 SEC) to a stunning, 84-59, win at the O-Dome over the 7th-ranked Lady Vols (17-3, 7-2 SEC), says the words mean, “We can stand with anybody. Just because of the past the University of Florida has, that has nothing at all to do with who we are now. It means, so what? We are enough.”

Jordyn Merritt contributed 13 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals against Tennessee. She was happy the Gators scored the big win, but beating the Lady Vols didn’t change the way she thinks about her teammates. They expected to win this game. They expect to win every game.

“We don’t really need validation from anybody,” Merritt said. “We believe in ourselves and we just go into any game knowing we are enough. We can compete with anybody in the country.”

The win over Tennessee was just one more statement for a team that has caught fire since a 74-56 walloping at the hands of Ole Miss a month ago. Since then, the Gators have won six of seven, including four over ranked teams. The only loss was to the nation’s No. 1 team, South Carolina.

To take out the Lady Vols, the Gators had to find ways to deal with a size deficit that has been the undoing of nearly every team Tennessee has faced this year. The Lady Vols try to play inside out with entry passes to 6-6 Tiari Key, who either overpowers smaller opponents or kicks it out to an open shooter like 6-2 Jordan Horston or 6-1 Rae Burrell. That was the Lady Vols’ game plan Thursday night but what they didn’t necessarily anticipate was a Florida defensive game plan that neutralized their size advantage.

Working in Florida’s favor was guards Smith, Zippy Broughton and Nina Rickards, who were so much quicker than the Tennessee guards. Picking up full court, they pressured the Lady Vols into taking precious seconds off the shot clock just to get the ball across the halfcourt line. Once Tennessee crossed midcourt, it seemed Florida was able to amp up the pressure in the backcourt. Florida consistently forced the UT guards to kill their dribble eight to ten feet beyond the 3-point line. Setting up so far out from the basket completely threw off the entire offensive scheme as shots came from farther away from the basket than the Lady Vols are used to. When the Lady Vols were able to lob the ball inside to Key or 6-2 Sara Puckett they were immediately surrounded and their ability to pivot out of trouble was taken away. Because Florida’s guards were quick enough to drop down to harass the Tennessee bigs, Merritt and Faith Dut were able to wall up and hold their ground without having to foul. Whenever Key or any other UT big got the ball back outside, Florida’s guards were quick to close out so there were very few open shots to be had.

“Their advantage was their size, so if we let them play their offense at the three-point line and post up our guards, we knew it was going to be a long night,” Finley said. “So, we bought into that. We understood the assignment and we pretty much executed it to perfection.”

The execution was so good the Vols turned the ball over 18 times which turned into 26 Florida points. Key only squeezed off seven shots, finished the night with eight points and got just a single assist when she passed the ball out of a double team. Horston, who came into the game averaging more than 16 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, scored only five points on 2-9 shooting. She had three rebounds and no assists, plus she turned the ball over six times in what was probably her most ineffective game this season.

Despite their size advantage the Lady Vols had only 10 second chance points and they managed only one point on a foul on a fast break. Perhaps the biggest shock was the Gators outrebounded Tennessee, 40-38, because the Gators boxed out and beat the Lady Vols to nearly every 50/50 ball that came off the rim.

“That team outrebounds their opponents by 20-plus rebounds a game so to outrebound that team with their size advantage is hard,” Finley said. “It’s desire and it’s want and that’s what we have.”

The Gators have each other, which has sustained them in a time of adversity. If there is one thing the Gators can tell you about it’s how to survive tough times. Former coach Cam Newbauer was fired amidst allegations that he ran a toxic program in which verbal and emotional abuse were constants. When Newbauer was fired Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin was facing an entire team mutiny until he named Finley as his interim coach. With Finley in charge, calm was restored and to a player, everyone ditched plans to transfer out.

Immediately, Finley took the old John Wooden approach to coaching basketball – win over the team’s hearts and minds and the physical aspects of the game will take care of themselves. A team that believes in itself plays with confidence and doesn’t get flustered when things go sideways. Where the Gators were when the calendar turned over to 2022 on January 1 and where they are now is a completely different place, largely because Finley has instilled an unbreakable level of confidence in her troops.

One way confidence has shown up is in the Gators showing up every game and making opponents work for everything.

“We understand that you can work and try your hardest and it’s still not better than your opponent,” Finley said. “We in this program aren’t going to lose anymore. That doesn’t mean we might not get any more L’s in the loss column but we’re going to make our opponent beat us.”

Perhaps Tennessee expected the Florida of old Thursday night. After all, the Gators came into the game 4-54 against the Lady Vols in history and none of the four wins was by more than nine points. The Gators have never won an SEC championship and they’ve only advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight once in school history. Tennessee, on the other hand, has won eight NCAA championships and 18 SEC titles and that can be quite intimidating.

But this Florida team wasn’t intimidated. Not in the least. Kiki Smith paid no attention to the script on those Creamsicle orange jerseys the Lady Vols wore.

“For me, it was just another game,” Smith said. “The SEC, the conference … every game is winnable for us. We go into each game with the same mindset.”

The mindset is “We are enough.”

On paper, this is not a Florida basketball team that is going to overwhelm anyone. They don’t have tremendous size and they don’t look the part of a physical team, but looks can deceive. The Gators don’t back down to anyone, no matter how physical, and as they proved against Tennessee and a couple of games ago against then 11th-ranked LSU, they have ways to compensate for their lack of size. They are playing with tremendous energy at both ends of the floor and they’re very unselfish (18 assists on 33 made baskets against the Lady Vols). By no means is this the Florida team of the past.

The Gators have seven games remaining in the regular season. Win four and they’re a mortal lock to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2016 season. Nobody dared think the Gators could pull that off back in October before the season began but back then nobody knew Kelly Rae Finley had a secret weapon.

It’s called “We are enough.”