The defense doesn't rest! Gators put the clamps on No. 1 Tennessee

Will Richard scores on a wraparound layup (UAA Photo)

Chaz Lanier, the leading scorer in the Southeastern Conference, was already having the kind of game you only have in your worst nightmare when he saw an opportunity to shush the sold out crowd at the O-Dome while perhaps injecting some energy in No. 1 Tennessee.

The Vols were down 22-12 when Lanier sized up Thomas Haugh at the top of the key. Two quick dribbles and he was in the lane, elevating while cupping the ball behind his right ear. Rueben Chinyelu was all that stood in the way of a monstrous tomahawk jam.

The better part of valor would have been a pass to Felix Okparo, who Chinyelu had left standing on the low block when he slid two steps into the paint to challenge Lanier. That made too much good sense.

Lanier elected to try to overpower Chinyelu. Bad decision. Very bad decision.

Chinyelu wasn’t about to allow Lanier a Sports Center moment. Lanier elevated high. Chinyelu elevated higher. Lanier threw out his left hand as he tried to dunk over Chinyelu.

Chinyelu won, swatting the ball away while driving Lanier to the floor. Adding insult to psychological injury, the ball trickled down Lanier’s body and after a short bounce, ticked his head.

The ball rolled harmlessly out of bounds. Florida basketball. The hinges that secure the O-Dome roof to the outer walls felt the strain of 120 or so decibels. Tennessee was already rattled. The blocked shot had the effect of telling the Vols the gig was up. It was only a matter of time before the clock flatlined at zero and their 14-game win streak came to a merciful end.

“We lost our poise,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said after the Vols (14-1, 1-1 SEC) absorbed a 73-43 beatdown at the hands of 8th-ranked Florida (14-1, 1-1 SEC). Tennessee’s 30-point loss was the biggest by a No. 1-ranked team since the 1968 NCAA semifinal in which UCLA torched top-ranked Houston, 101-69.

This was Florida’s proof positive that what happened three days earlier in Lexington was a most embarrassing aberration. Against Kentucky the Gators played like the defensive game plan was supposed to arrive by air mail and the plane carrying all the matchups and tendencies was still circling Lexington three hours after the game ended. Kentucky stroked one three-ball after another into the net and the Wildcats did 44 points of damage in the paint.

The Gators came out with a far different mentality against Tennessee, fueled by an O-Dome capacity crowd of 11,011 with lines that began wrapping around the block early in the afternoon.

“I think our fans have been fantastic supporting us,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “You know, as amazing as it was tonight, when you sell out a game like Stetson a couple weeks ago on a weekend of a break with no students around on a Sunday, I think it was ... I was like, man, like, alright, these fans really have our backs. You know they’ve done a great job supporting us all year, and we knew what tonight was going to be. We drove up for shootaround -- I think I got to the O’Dome at like 12:30 -- and the line was already around the block with people waiting to get into the gym. We knew it was going to be a great atmosphere tonight, and we knew we're going to get a lift from the crowd. Obviously, after Year 1, specifically last year and this year, this has become a great home-court advantage for us and one of the best in America.” 

The crowd understood the significance of taking out Tennessee’s dynamic duo of Lanier and point guard Zakai Ziegler. Those two make the UT offense go but they never got into any kind of a rhythm because the Gators forced them to take shots they don’t normally take. The Gators reduced Lanier and Ziegler to non-factor status and with each stop,each missed shot, the decibel level of the crowd grew stronger.

Lanier came into the game averaging 20 a game, but he never got untracked. After the Chinyelu block it seemed obvious that Florida’s defensive pressure was in his head. He scored 10 but it took 16 shots and a dismal 1-9 from the 3-point line. A quick trigger shooter, he had been routinely bombing in the points against any team the Vols played. Tuesday night was different, however.

"We just kind of stayed in him, you know, we didn't want to give him no breathing room,” Florida’s Alijah Martin said. “We know he's an unbelievable talent, unbelievable shooter. Don't need no space, and that was the game plan. Just don’t give him no space, don't give nothing easy."

Ziegler also scored 10 but five of those came in the last five minutes with the Vols already 30 points under water. Ziegler, among the nation’s leaders in assists at 8.0 per game, got one and that was in the first half. The Gators did an exceptional job of preventing Ziegler to penetrate into the line where he flips up alley oop passes to the Tennessee big guys. Forced to spend the game shooting from the outside, Ziegler was 4-12 overall, 1-6 from the 3-point line.

The game plan wasn’t complicated, simply cut the head off the snake. In Tennessee’s case it is a 2-headed snake -- Ziegler and Lanier. Will Richard spent most of the game harassing Lanier. Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Denzel Aberdeen took turns neutralizing Ziegler, who gets the Vols into a good shooting rhythm. Ziegler was forced to deal from deep on the perimeter and was completely taken out of his game. He was averaging 8.0 assists per game. He got one against the Gators.

“We did a good job of keeping him out of the paint and allowing our bigs to get back to the body of Okpara,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “They tried to run a couple of those lobs and they ended up in turnovers, which was big for us.”

With Ziegler unable to set up Tennessee shooters and Lanier unable to throw it in the ocean from the end of the pier, the Vols went 12-56 from the floor overall and a dismal 4-29 from the 3-point line. At one point, Tennessee was 1-24 from the 3-point line.

Tennessee kept shooting and missing, which only fueled Florida’s rebounding advantage. The Gators dominated, winning the battle of the backboards 55-38 with Chinyelu grabbing 15 and Alex Condon 12. Although the Gators scored only 73 points, 15 below their per game average, the combination of defense and rebounding made that more than adequate. Florida shot just 41.9 (27-69) percent from the field overall, 6-20 from the 3-point line. The Gators grabbed 19 offensive rebounds which were converted into 19 second chance points.

Just as the Gators made it a priority to stop Ziegler and Lanier, the Vols made Clayton the focus of their defensive efforts. It was effective, holding him to seven points, all of which came in the second half. But this was a night when Clayton was more valuable passing the ball and playing defense. He had four rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots to go with the seven points.

Clayton hit a second half three to keep his streak alive at 38 games with at least one 3-pointer. Clayton can move into a tie for second with Lee Humphrey Saturday at Arkansas. He needs four to tie Michael Frazier II for the top spot.

With Clayton basically taken out of his game, the Gators relied on Martin, Aberdeen and Condon to take up the scoring slack. Martin scored 18, three on a ridiculous turnaround bomb from the left wing that beat the shot clock. Martin finished with six rebounds, one assist and two steals. Aberdeen scored a career-high 16 including 10 in the first half. Condon delivered a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

In the first half when the Gators were struggling to make shots, Aberdeen came off the bench to provide a lift. He was a nightmare matchup for Tennessee, which couldn’t find a defender who could neutralize him. Defensively, his long arms made it extremely difficult for Ziegler to lob the ball up top for Okpara and his quickness helped keep him out of the paint.

The Gators dominated from the start, taking a 12-0 lead fueled by a 6-0 run on fast breaks after steals. Once the game settled down a bit, Tennessee kept launching threes but couldn’t find the mark. The Vols took 29 first half shots, nearly half from the 3-point line when they went 0-14  from the 3-point line in the first half and didn’t make a 3-pointer until Lanier got one to go down with 19:10 left in the game.

The closest Tennessee came to the Gators was Will Richard’s fast break layup with 18:58 to go that made it 2-0. The Vols never mounted any sort of comeback. Golden admitted after the game that he fully expected the Gators would win the game, but he was surprised by the final margin.  

“We have incredible respect for Tennessee and, you know, the program that Coach Barnes built there, and we knew this was going to be a really challenging game for us, but we also do believe we're getting to that point where we expect to win these types of games,” Golden said. “It's hard to say when you host the No. 1 team in the country that you expect to win, but I think our program did, you know, going into this game tonight. And, you know, we had good prep, I thought we had really good mentality, had a good shoot-around today, and our guys, they were just ready for it. You know, you can sense it if guys are nervous or if they're not, you know, preparing the right way, and I thought we were really locked in, and I thought our performance showed that.” 

SEC BASKETBALL

Tuesday’s scores

No. 8 FLORIDA (14-1, 1-1 SEC) 73, No. 1 Tennessee (14-1, 1-1 SEC) 43

No. 2 Auburn (14-1, 2-0 SEC) 87, Texas (11-4, 0-2 SEC) 82

Georgia (13-2, 1-1 SEC) 82, No. 6 Kentucky (12-3, 1-1 SEC) 69

No. 14 Mississippi State (14-1, 2-0 SEC) 76, Vanderbilt (13-2, 1-1 SEC) 64

Missouri (12-3, 1-1 SEC) 83, LSU (11-4, 0-2 SEC) 67

Tonight’s games

No. 5 Alabama (12-2, 1-0 SEC) at South Carolina (10-4, 0-1 SEC)

No. 23 Ole Miss (12-2, 1-0 SEC) at Arkansas (11-3, 0-1 SEC)

No. 10 Texas A&M (12-2, 1-0 SEC) at No. 17 Oklahoma (13-1, 0-1 SEC)