Same old story, Gators come close against another top five opponent

Xavian Lee had his best game as a Gator against UConn (Photo by Chris Spears)

NEW YORK – That elusive complete game that Todd Golden knows the Florida Gators (5-4) are capable of playing will have to wait. Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden was another one of those nights when the Gators flashed No. 18 Florida #Gators fall to 5-4 after 77-73 loss to No. 5 UConn in MSG. UF is playing the same game every time out vs. quality competition.

Florida’s chance to win this game or at least tie it up and send it to overtime rested on a proper 5-count on a sideline out of bounds with 9.4 seconds showing on the clock and the Gators trailing, 76-73. Now, it was a longshot considering only Tommy Haugh had shown any propensity for nailing a 3-pointer – he was 3-5, the rest of the team 1-10 – and UConn intended to foul before any Gator could launch a 3-pointer, but the quick whistle didn’t help matters.

It happened like this. A driving layup by Boogie Fland with 13 seconds left brought the Gators within three at 76-73. Against a full court press, the Gators trapped Jayden Stewart against the sideline in front of the Florida bench, forcing him to lose control of the ball out of bounds. Florida basketball, more than adequate time to get off a good shot.

“We obviously gave them a chance by turning it over there on the sideline and we were preparing to foul them, you know, to prevent the three to tie it,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said.

The Huskies didn’t have to foul. Marquis Pettigrew of the zebra crew signaled five seconds turning the ball over, but was it five? Golden disagreed and watching replays in the locker room post game confirmed to him that it was a quick whistle.

“To be honest, I challenge everybody to time it and see what they come up,” Golden said. “We timed it in the locker room, and we got 4.6 and 4.7. In a moment like that – I’ve been around the game for a long time – to get a call like that where it doesn't even get to 5 seconds … usually they give you an extra second, to be honest. Just a really, really tough pill to swallow. At the same time, we've got to do a better job getting available earlier. I just thought that was banged a little early.”

In so many ways, this was like the losses to No. 1 Arizona, TCU and No. 3 Duke in that the Gators weren’t exactly short on chances to make game-winning plays. Once again there was a shooting issue. Haugh gave the Gators an outside presence, but the other Gators couldn’t find the range. UConn made it a priority to take sharpshooter Urban Klavzar completely out of the perimeter game. He couldn’t find the room to squeeze off even one shot from the 3-point line.

Xaivian Lee, who hit an early three missed on six others, marring what was an otherwise brilliant game in which was good for 19 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals.

But it wasn’t simply the shots falling from long distance. Minus the 4-15 3-point shooting and the Gators still missed more than half of their 2-point shots (Florida shot 21-44 inside the 3-point arc). Making matters worse, despite a decisive edge rebounding (40-28), the Gators were unable to make UConn pay. Florida grabbed 16 offensive rebounds and converted them into just six points.

That made Golden extremely unhappy.

“We had 16 offensive rebounds to their seven, and we had less second chance points than they did,” Golden said. “That's something we've got to be able to capitalize on when given the opportunity. I thought we did a great job on the glass but didn't capitalize.”

Defensively the Gators were up and down. In the first half they couldn’t get stops as UConn hit 16-27 overall and 5-10 from the 3-point line. Things improved somewhat in the second half, but too often there were lapses that allowed the Huskies to spurt into a modest lead that had the Gators playing comeback. UConn shot 13-31 overall from the field in the second half and just 3-8 from the 3-point line, but the threes were daggers.

There was a three by Alex Karaban with 7:12 remaining when he was the trailer on a fast break and another by Solo Ball with 5:51 left. Those were part of a 12-3 run by the Huskies that saw them go from a 1-point deficit to a 66-58 lead.

To the Gators’ credit, they fought back and made it close but you can’t trade baskets and make up deficits and you can’t keep wishing the other team will miss free throws. In the final 1:13 UConn went 9-12 from the foul line and while the misses were critical the Gators couldn’t whittle away enough points to pull out a win.

It was the same old story that it has been since the season began. The Gators are more than capable of playing with anyone in the country, but they haven’t discovered what it takes to play a complete game and finish off a quality opponent.

Golden knows Florida is close to being that team nobody wants to play and he thinks he will see that happen once January arrives when the schedule shifts to the Southeastern Conference.

“I'm a pretty positive guy,” Golden said. “We're close. We're right there. If we can get five percent better over the next couple weeks, we're going to be pretty good in SEC play.”

This isn’t last year’s SEC, which experts like Jay Bilas say might have been the most dominant year by a conference in college basketball history. The power seems to have shifted to the Big 12 and the Big Ten. That doesn’t mean the SEC portion of the schedule is going to be a cakewalk, but Florida does have all the pieces of the puzzle.

It is simply a matter of putting them all together and playing with consistency. It’s a matter of starting strong and finishing stronger.

“The challenge that we put in front of ourselves playing Arizona in Vegas, going to Duke, playing UConn here at MSG – Storrs South or whatever they call it – we put ourselves in some really tough spots to prepare ourselves for the rest of the year. Obviously we wanted to win one of these. 

“The great thing for us is we're through the toughest part of our schedule. That's not a knock to anybody we're playing moving forward, but we don't have a top five team left on our schedule right now moving forward. So I think the combination of us improving in the areas that we know we need to be better … I thought we did a better job taking care of the ball tonight … We've got to shoot it a little bit better, and we've got to capitalize on our second chances. I thought that was a big part of why we weren't able to become victorious tonight.”

One coach who knows how good the Gators can be when they finally get their act together is Hurley, who won the two NCAA titles prior to Florida’s championship run last season.

“They’re as good as anyone we’ve played or anyone I’ve watched on film,” Hurley said.

Yes, the Gators are as good as anyone in the country. It is a matter of when they put it all together not if. The Gators have George Washington to play Saturday in Sunrise, Florida, and then there are a couple of games that should be easy wins. Then SEC play begins in January.

Can they find the shooting? Can they continue to eliminate the turnovers (only 12 against UConn)? Can they defend with enough intensity to stop opponents cold when it matters the most?

These are questions that will have to be answered, but Florida has the components to do it. Lee and Fland (8 points despite quick early fouls that limited him to just six first half minutes) have shown they are capable but they have to find consistency.

Up front Chinyelu can be a dominant rebounder (11 rebounds to go with 8 points, 2 blocks and a steal) but he has to understand that he’s more powerful than most every big man in the country. He needs to exert more brute force on the offensive end and spend less time trying to finesse. Condon (14 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocked shots) hasn’t found anything close to an outside shot that he needs to stretch the defense.

Haugh has been Florida’s only consistent player all season. He scored 18 against UConn, hitting 7-12 of his shots from the field including his 3-5 from the 3-point line. Someone has to start hitting threes to open up Haugh’s game even more.

Hurley thinks Haugh is playing at an elite level.

“I think he’s one of my favorite players in recent memory, just that guy is just an incredible player,” Hurley said. “… That guys like first team All-American. I mean that guy should be a lottery pick. That guy’s tremendous.”

Haugh is. Now the rest of the Florida team has to catch up to play with his same level of consistency and intensity. The Gators are close to being outstanding. Close, but they’re not there yet.