Miami was no match for No. 1 Florida's intensity

TAMPA – Almost as if he expected the question, Todd Golden's face lit up with an ear to ear grin when the subject of intensity was brought up in the post game press conference at Benchmark International Arena.

"It's the real season now, the real season is here," Golden said after the preseason No. 1-ranked Gators (1-0) dazzled defensively to take down 14th-ranked Miami, 77-67, before a very pro-Florida crowd of 15,324. "We're playing a top 10-12 team in America. The intensity is going to be there."

Florida coach Todd Golden and Thomas Haugh at a news conference in October. Photo by Chris Spears, GatorBaitMedia.com.

The intensity was certainly there Monday evening, particularly on the defensive end of the court where the Gators forced Miami out of its comfort zone. From a dunk by Somto Cyril with 12:25 left until the final whistle the Hurricanes made only four of 25 shots from the field. From the 10-minute mark until an Acaden Lewis driving layup with 1:21 showing on the clock, the Hurricanes went 1-19.

For the game, Miami made just 21 of 60 shots (35 percent) from the field including 4-17 (23.5 percent) from the three-point line. Miami was 9-30 overall and 1-9 from three in the second half.

Miami made its first five shots of the second half, enabling the Hurricanes to erase 12 points of what had been a 14-point deficit dating back to a three by Urban Klavzar with 4:14 left in the first half that put the Gators ahead 41-27. Once Miami whittled away at the lead, closing the gap to 53-51 on a tip-in dunk by Cyril with 15:07 left, Florida ratcheted up the defensive pressure to an elite level. The only thing that kept the game as close was the constant toot of favorable whistles that sent the Hurricanes on what seemed to be an endless parade to the foul line.

"That's a credit to this coaching staff," Florida's Tommy Haugh said. "I was saying it earlier, I think the scout that they put together for this game was like the best scout I've had since being here at Florida. We were out there playing and it just felt like everything was moving how we knew it was going to move. Nothing surprised us. We were able to stay on their tendencies of the guys and stuff. That's just credit to Coach Golden's staff and the all-star scout team at practice."

Haugh gave an All-American performance at both ends of the court, finishing the night with 19 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot. He went 4-8 from the three-point line, half his rebounds were off the offensive glass and he seemed to show up consistently in the passing lanes or in the paint to snag the 50-50 balls to kill Miami possessions. The only flaw in his game was at the foul line where, after a 2-2 start, he bricked five of the next six attempts.

Defensively, he locked down Miami sophomore Shelton Henderson, forcing him into a 2-13 shooting night and just seven points.

"I'm going to give him a hard time about his free throw shooting later, but everything else was this insane effort, both on the offensive -- you know his numbers speak for themselves -- but I thought his defensive effort tonight on No. 7 (Henderson) for Miami was elite."

Malik Reneau, an 18-per game scorer last season, was 1-6 from the field, finishing with five points and made only one of six shots while guarded by either Rueben Chinyelu or Alex Condon. On the perimeter, Miami's Acaden Lewis scored 24 but Boogie Fland forced him into four turnovers and just 2-8 from the three-point line.

Just 10 days prior in an exhibition game in Coral Gables, Miami ran Vanderbilt out of the gym, 109-96, a game in which Lewis scored 23 and dealt 10 assists. Golden knew Lewis was going to score his share of points, but he wanted him to work for every one of them while preventing him from getting teammates easy shots in the paint.

"The key for us was we were going to live with him scoring a little bit," Golden said. "We didn't want him creating for others and assisting and getting Cyril and Reneau easy baskets. A huge part of the scout was no threes for (Nick) Dorn and (Brent) Bland. They only got one and it was in transition after a bad turnover in the first half. We'll live with Acaden in this situation taking a bunch of shots if that means their shooters aren't getting shots and their bigs aren't getting dunks at the rim."

In the past two seasons the Gators have finished top six nationally in defensive efficiency by analytics guru Ken Pomeroy. The Miami effort already has the Gators No. 3 in defensive efficiency.

Offensively, it was a tidy performance for UF in the first half when they hit 15-28 from the field and 7-13 on their threes. Things slowed down in the second half, in part because the constant interruptions due to foul calls and reviews of plays by the officials. The Gators made only 8-25 of their second half shots and the three-point shooting tapered off to 4-13, but the Gators were 11-26 for 42.3 percent. In the three exhibition games, the Gators were a combined 27-99 including a rather wretched 4-29 against Baylor.

"That free-throw shooting, I think it's a little flukey for us," Golden said. "I don't worry about us as a free-throw shooting team. I'm really excited about the three-point shooting. Let's talk about that. We were 42 percent from three. Nobody thinks we can shoot but I think we can shoot. I think we've got a chance."

It wasn't just Haugh's free throw shooting that had Golden and most of the pro-Gator crowd shaking their heads. The Gators shot 20-35 from the foul line, and just 11-20 in the second half, snuffing out opportunities to walk out of the arena with a blowout win of 20 or more points. That will have to improve in a hurry because in two weeks the Gators will be playing in a tournament in Las Vegas where they open with Notre Dame and could possibly follow with Houston and Kansas the next two nights.

The bench play Golden got from Klavzar, Isaiah Brown and Domen Petrovic was eye-opening, not only from an offensive point of view – they combined to score 22 points – but their work defensively and on the glass where they combined for eight rebounds.

Petrovic delivered a jolt of energy in the first half when he outmuscled three Miami players for a rebound then 10 seconds later at the other end of the floor when he calmly launched a nothing but net three from the top of the key. He finished with six points and three rebounds.

"He just stepped up," Golden said. "He knows he's a great shooter. That's one of his biggest strengths and I'm not sure I'm surprised, but I'm really proud of the way that he wasn't fazed. I mean, Miami is a really good team, man. They got some big, strong dudes out there. This was a very SEC-like game from a physicality standpoint, and for him to step up and give us those minutes, gives me a lot of confidence in him moving forward that he can play a key role for us."

Brown contributed seven points and three rebounds including a highlight reel dunk back near the end of the first half when he ran the baseline and soared above everyone to perfectly time a rebound which he flushed with two hands. That was quite a contrast to the exhibition games, after which Golden called out the high flying junior.

"He was absolutely awesome," Golden said. "We've been really – I don't know if I would say hard on Isaiah, but we have challenged him a lot because he gave us such a great season last year … we built this team planning on him playing a very important role. He just hadn't played his best in the exhibition games … I think he made a lot of winning plays, some big shots. He gave us a lift."

This was just the first game of the season, the beginning of what the Gators hope is a 40-game marathon that will take them to their second national championship in three years. By no means was it perfect, but the intensity in which the Gators played left little doubt that if sustained over the course of the season, Florida will hover around the current No. 1 ranking.

The second half shooting (8-25) and 10 turnovers after only three in the first half are only concerning if they become a trend, but a lot of sins can be forgiven when the defense shows up like it did.

"Really proud of my team," Golden said. "We competed the right way. We challenged our team over the past couple of weeks that we can't just compete and play hard. We have to play smart as well. I thought we did a better job putting those two things together tonight."

Golden greets Alex Condon during the Oct. 18 exhibition against Baylor. Photo by Chris Spears, GatorBaitMedia.com.

Game notes: Fland (12) and Condon (11) followed Haugh in the scoring column. Fland had four assists and four steals as well while Condon had seven rebounds, three assists, a steal and a blocked shot in which he did a two-hand roof job to stop a dunk. Chinyelu only scored six points, but he grabbed 14 rebounds, handed out three assists and blocked three shots.

Next up for the Gators is Jacksonville Thursday night at the O-Dome.

Elsewhere in the SEC

Monday's games

No. 7 Texas (1-0) 109, Chicago State (0-1) 59: Matas Vokietaitis hit all nine of his shots from the field as he scored 22 points to go with six rebounds, one assist and a blocked shot to lead Texas to its season opening win.

No. 24 Vanderbilt (1-0) 93, Bellarmine (0-1) 47: Vanderbilt jumped out to a 44-17 lead at the half and then went on cruise control the rest of the way. Tyler Tanner led the Commodores with 20 points, two rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Mississippi State (1-0) 106, Tennessee Tech (0-1) 88: Josh Hubbard scored 26 points to go with nine assists and two steals to lead Mississippi State.

Georgia (1-0) 78, North Carolina Central (0-1) 62: Led by Kanon Catchings (16 points, three rebounds, one assist, one steal, one blocked shot) and Blue Cain (16 points, six rebounds) Georgia subdued North Carolina Central.

Ole Miss (1-0) 99, Alcorn State (0-1) 58: Seton Hall transfer Adam Clark (17 points, two rebounds, seven assists), Patton Pinkins (16 points, 3-4 on 3-pointers) and Arizona State transfer Santiago Trouet (15 points, seven rebounds, five assists, one steal) led Ole Miss to an easy win.

East Texas A&M (1-0) 68, Oklahoma (0-1) 64: Oklahoma trailed by nine at the half and never caught up as the Sooners dropped their opener, the only SEC team to lose Monday night.

Tuesday's games

Manhattan at No. 23 Kentucky; LSU-New Orleans at LSU; Cleveland State at Missouri; Stetson at South Carolina; Wofford at No. 8 Tennessee; Alabama State at Texas A&M

Wednesday game

Southeastern Louisiana at Auburn

Statistics: FloridaGators.com box score.

Photos by Chris Spears, GatorBaitMedia.com.