The Florida Gators Have A Date With Cinderella and the Country's Leading Scorer
- Buddy Martin
- Mar 21, 2021
- 5 min read
As Ohio State players stood open mouthed and stunned, the guys in purple high-stepped around the court. Cinderella had officially arrived to the ball, in the form of Oral Roberts University. The 15th seeded private school from Oklahoma had just knocked off the second seeded Buckeyes. It was the epitome of all that is mad about March.
Back in their hotel room, still recovering from their own overtime win versus Virginia Tech, the Florida Gators men’s basketball team was watching with rapt attention, knowing they’d face the winner of the Oral Roberts-Ohio State game.
According to guard Noah Locke, what they saw amplified the importance to not take any game lightly, especially in the NCAA Tournament.
“We saw that those guys can play, it’s not a game where we can just come in and underestimate them. All those guys can score, I mean the leading scorer in the country’s on their team, but they got all guys that can play. But we went over some scout today, just figuring out ways that we’re going to stop him and stop the guys that give them points, and the way they guard, and stuff like that. We’ve just got to game plan for them.”
The leading scorer mentioned by Locke is Max Abmas. Following their win Friday evening, Abbas now leads the country averaging 24.4 points per game (635 total). He also leads the country in three-pointers made with 95 thus far. Oral Roberts as a whole is third in the country in three-pointers made, trailing only Alabama and Toledo. And such is the crux of the Gators defensive game plan.
“One of the most difficult matchups for us defensively all year,” admits Gators’ Head Coach Mike White.
“Obviously a championship team, a team that’s on a great run. It starts with how they spread you. They all shoot it. Their top six can all pass, dribble and shoot. I’m not talking about good shooters. Really, really good shooters led by Abmas and [forward Kevin] Obanor.
“Obanor shoots it as well as any post player that we have played since I’ve been at Florida. Shoots it like a 2 guard. Their sixth man comes in at 6-8 and shoots it like a 2 guard. They just space you and spread you, which opens up driving lanes for arguably the fastest guy in our game. We have our hands full trying to defend these guys.
“We’re walking through stuff with our guys – ‘How we going to guard this action? How we going to guard that action?’ We do this, and we have to understand this guy shoots it, quick release, at 50 percent and he plays the ‘5’ and this guy, if you don’t pick him up at the spot it’s like a HORSE shot for him’ – our guys understand these guys are really good. I don’t know what you label them other than a really good team that just won a championship a week ago and now just beat Ohio State.”
Still, the stigma of being a small school in a second tier conference can place even the most proficient of teams in a low seed. And that little 15 next to Oral Roberts’ name will make them a Cinderella, even if they had justification to be invited to the dance long before they muscled their way in with a Summit League title.
And while chalk would suggest the Gators path to the second weekend just got significantly easier, and fans at home will be pulling hard for the underdog, White and the Gators are determined to take this match beyond seriously. It will be their first experience with a Cinderella in the tournament.
“We can’t underestimate them. A great team and they beat another great team, so I mean if they can beat them obviously they’re a really good team. So we’ve got to come in with the right mindset ready to win,” explains Locke.
“I feel like usually teams in the tournament, you know when it’s a Cinderella team and they win their first game, the next team comes up they’re like ‘Aw well we got a 15-seed, an inferior opponent’. They come in thinking that way and then they beat them, and then they just keep going and going. So for us to be able to come into the right mindset and doing the right things, guarding them to the best of our ability, I feel like we’ll be able to get a win.”
The last Florida team to face such a low seed was in 2013 when Billy Donovan’s group beat Florida Gulf Coast University in the Sweet 16. Florida rolled through that win, crashing the glass slipper in route to the Elite Eight. To make it to the Sweet 16 next weekend in Indianapolis, the Gators will have to strike the balance that Mike White has been preaching; playing with emotions without playing emotional. Doing that means leaning back on the hard practices, long hours and drills under the dimmed lights of the gym as opposed to being swayed by the bright lights of the big dance.
"Just going back and thinking how much practice and how much work we’ve put in. It could definitely get emotional, for sure, but we practice and do all these things so many times to where it’s we don’t have to overthink anything, get emotionally out of it, just stay calm and do what we do every day.”
Florida found themselves emotional at times on Friday, in their first game against Virginia Tech. White noted smiles in huddles when the score was too close or attention pulled away from the action. But then, when the Gators could have justifiably folded in to themselves emotionally—watching their lost teammate Keyontae Johnson helping guard Tyree Appleby stumble off the court after an elbow to the face—they instead channeled it.
Colin Castleton recorded the 25th NCAA Tournament double-double in Florida history, with 19 points and a career-best 14 rebounds. Tre Mann and Scottie Lewis had big days, as Lewis went for 15 and Mann for 14 and combined to shoot 10-for-17 from the field and 5-for-9 from 3-point range. Mann also drew two charges in the first three minutes of the game.
Mann’s step-back three pointers became a thing of beauty, going 3-6 on the shot. Then in overtime, he hit only one…but it was crucial. With 24 seconds remaining and up by only one, Mann stepped back behind the arc and rainbowed one in that needed a flight pattern and gave Florida a two-possession lead. A Scottie Lewis free throw provided more breathing room and the Gators left the court victorious.
While White admitted time constraints in the tournament meant he didn’t get to rewatch the Gators opening win, he doesn’t need to see the film to recall each shot with which Tre Mann changed the game.
“The step-back in the left wing across from our bench and then stringing the ball-screen catch out right toward our bench going right, late clock and really we had—I started saying it so I might as well put it out there—we had one guy out of position who hadn’t played a lot of minutes in the last month. So it was a little bit of a broken play there where he’s just in space and he just steps up and makes a huge shot,” admits White.
“An all-league guard making an all-league shot in the NCAA Tournament. He’s worked his butt off of course and he’s put himself in position to do that.”
Adds Locke, “It’s big, it’s definitely big. I mean, it’s a great shot from him. I feel like everybody contributed in the moment, everybody was locked in, for him to be able to make that big shot for us it was great. We’ll need that from him and everybody else throughout the rest of the tournament.”
The rest of the tournament continues tonight. The Florida Gators have a date with Cinderella at 7:45 pm Eastern.
Kassidy - Great article, thank you. Your article lays it out - right down there where the rubber meets the road - as UF will try to upset the #15 Seed up-setters from Oral Roberts tonight. You know full well that, except for UF fans, the entire country will be pulling for OR.