Omar Payne Saves the Florida Gators Once Again...How Can He Do It More Often?
Once or twice a season, fans of Florida Gators basketball receive a sighting. Omar Payne, the sophomore forward, in the game of the year and driving the Gators to an improbable win. On Tuesday night, it was in a dominating win over the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers.
“Just really just waiting for my opportunity to shine. Today, we have a couple of dudes out so I just had to go in and do what I usually to do,” reflected Payne after the 75-49 win.
What he did was provide over 27 minutes of play with a +16 during his time. Payne finished with nine points (4-5 FG, 1-2 FT) and nine rebounds (five offensive, four defensive) plus an assist. All well above his previous season average of 2.8 rebounds and 3.4 points per game.
“Efficient 4-5, keeping the ball high, finishing on the interior, fanning it out when he needed to,” commented Head Coach Mike White of his forward’s performance.
“He plays within himself offensively. With a lot of these guys, let’s not show what we can’t do, let’s just play to our strengths, and I think Omar is a pretty good example of that. He’s developing, he’s growing as an offensive player, his left hand, his left hooks have gotten much better. His feel, his passing ability. He’s got elite length of course, he’s got a nose for the ball on the offensive glass. He’s grown defensively with the blocked shots. He changes the game for us a little bit.”
On Tuesday against a Top 10 team, he had to change the game. The Gators needed him. Florida floored a team missing its top three playmakers: forward Keyontae Johnson, forward Colin Castleton and guard Scottie Lewis. That’s why the win itself is impressive, since it showcased fight and talent the team will need if they are to make a run.
But it also reintroduced us to the game changer Omar Payne.
Payne found out he was starting just before tip-off, when he got word in the locker room that Castleton (ankle) wouldn’t be able to play. In place of the Michigan Wolverine transfer, Payne became a linchpin, leading both teams in rebounds and helping dominate the Vols on the boards.
Said Payne’s teammate, Noah Locke, “[Omar] played really well, just rebounding the ball. You can literally throw the ball anywhere and he’s going to get it. He’s athletic, he just played hard. He just stepped up when we needed him to.”
“When we needed him to” is the key there. As the post game Gators notes noted, Omar Payne has figured prominently in the past two Florida wins vs. top-10 opponents. Making his first start of the season, Payne tallied nine points and nine rebounds. Payne had 19 points and 11 rebounds in last season’s win vs. #4 Auburn.
So how do the Gators and Mike White find a more consistent performer with Payne? Some of it is simply the depth chart, with Keyontae Johnson and Colin Castleton playing more minutes until recently. Castleton is expected back from his swollen ankle (suffered versus Mississippi State) but Johnson could miss significant time for the remainder of the season after collapsing on the floor during a timeout versus Florida State.
In other words, along with Anthony Duruji, the Gators need the super hero Payne to make more appearances than once a season. Payne knows that, explaining before the Tennessee game, he sat and rewatched film from the entire season. That’s when he realized how much more aggressive he needed to be on the offensive boards, which paid off on Tuesday night.
The next step, according to Locke, is Omar Payne simply believing he can be “Omar Payne” on any given night.
“It’s just a mental thing I mean to me just being able to get him going in that way, you know, he's, he sees what he's, you know, able to do. I mean I see glimpses of it in practice, I see it all the time.
“So I mean if he just continues to work on his mental—being able to tell himself that, I mean he could do that every single game—then I feel like it would help him a lot. And, I mean, I know that he knows it. I know that he knows it, and you know when his time comes he’ll step up, just like he did [versus Tennessee].”
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