Thoughts of the Day: March 4, 2022

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:

HEART ATTACK CITY! GATORS RALLY PAST VANDERBILT, 53-52 You can’t cut it any closer than the Florida Gators did Thursday afternoon in the second round of the SEC Tournament against Vanderbilt. Two Nina Rickards free throws with 8.2 seconds remaining gave the Gators a 53-52 lead, their first lead of the entire game. There was still time for Vanderbilt to beat the Gators for the second time in eight days, but Jordyn Merritt blocked a shot by Iyana Moore under the basket with 0:00.4 remaining. Replay determined Merritt was the last one to touch the ball so the Commodores had a chance for a catch and shoot on the inbounds. Vandy tried to get the ball in the lane to Jordyn Cambridge, but Florida’s Jeriah Warren reached out, got a hand on the ball and knocked it harmlessly away to prevent a last second game-winner.

This was an epic comeback by the Gators who made Kelly Rae Finley 1-0 in her first game coaching without the interim label attacked. Starting with the first quarter when Vanderbilt came out scorching hot to take a 12-0 lead, the Gators were in a continuous uphill battle. UF tied the game at 18-18 in the second quarter on a layup by Jordyn Merritt but Vandy surged back for a 31-22 lead at the half.

Vanderbilt stretched the lead to 14 in the third quarter and the Commodores led by 11 with 8:13 to play but the Gators just wouldn’t go away. The turning point from a defensive standpoint was with 8:36 to go in the game when UF forced a shot clock violation. From that point on the Gators outscored Vanderbilt 18-8 by forcing the Commodores to make mistakes or take bad shots on the perimeter and limiting the touches in the paint by Sacha Washington.

Coming back was made that much more difficult with 4:16 to go when All-SEC guard Kiki Smith had to leave the game after suffering a lower leg injury. That only seemed to make the Gators more determined to win the game.

“I think we did a good job looking each other in the eye, believing in ourselves and knowing that Kiki believes in us so we just buckled down, gave it all we had and played for Kiki,” Rickards said.

Twice in the final four minutes the Gators cut the Vandy lead to a single point – 50-49 with 1:17 to play on a Zippy Broughton jumper; 52-51 with 37 seconds to go on a driving layup by Broughton. The Gators caught a break with 11 seconds to go when Washington missed two free throws that would have given Vanderbilt a 3-point lead but Emanuella De Olivera rebounded and Finley called a 30-second time out. When the Gators inbounded the ball, Rickards saw a crease down the left side of the lane so she blew by one defender and got fouled. Her two free throws that provided the winning margin found only the bottom of the net.

When the final horn sounded, it was an emotional scene on the court. The Gators definitely wanted this game for Finley, voted SEC Coach of the Year by the USA Today network, but especially for Smith, who has spearheaded several fourth quarter comebacks this season.

“It was emotional, yes, but it wasn’t difficult at all on the way Kiki influences us on and off the court,” Zippy Broughton said. “We know she always has our back so we had to contribute that for her. So, we just responded in the best way we could so we just had to give our all. No matter if we won or lost we just had to give our all for Kiki.”

This was a game the Gators seemed intent to give away until the last eight minutes. Eight days ago they lost to Vanderbilt when they turned the ball over 28 times. They gave it away 21 times Thursday, which gave Vandy 23 points but the Gators offset their benevolence by playing tough, lockdown defense. Vandy only shot 30.2 percent overall and 26.3 percent on 3-pointers. Jordyn Cambridge, who had a triple-double (13 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists) Wednesday afternoon when Vanderbilt beat Texas A&M in the first round of the tournament, was held to four points. She was 1-11 from the field and only had two rebounds and four assists.

Rickards and Broughton got it done for the Gators on the offensive end. Rickards scored 15 points to go with eight rebounds, one assist and a steal, and Broughton had 14 points, four rebounds, one assist and a steal.

The Gators improved to 21-9 with the win. The 5th-seeded Gators face 4th-seeded Ole Miss at 3:30 today in the quarterfinals but they’ll have to do it without Smith.

“She sacrificed a lot coming back this year to help us write the story about how the Gators became,” Finley said while choking back the tears. “And for that …she didn’t have to do that but she did because she is really selfless.”

Thursday’s scores: NO. 23 FLORIDA (21-9) 53, Vanderbilt (14-18) 52; Alabama (17-12) 74, No. 24 Georgia (20-9) 62; Arkansas (18-12) 61, Missouri (18-12) 52; Kentucky (16-11) 83, Mississippi State (15-14) 67

Friday’s quarterfinals: Arkansas (18-12) vs. No. 1 South Carolina (27-1), 1 p.m.; NO. 23 FLORIDA (21-9) vs. Ole Miss (22-7), 3:30 p.m.; Kentucky (16-11) vs. No. 6 LSU (25-4), 7 p.m.; Alabama (17-12) vs. No. 18 Tennessee (22-7)

CAN THE GATORS TAKE OUT NO. 7 KENTUCKY?

There are times when the 7th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats look like a team that can destroy anything in their path on the way to a Final Four and potentially a 9th NCAA championship in school history. The Wildcats looked that good back on February 12 at Rupp when they manhandled the Gators, 78-57. The Wildcats also have their moments like February 15 when Tennessee did to them what they had done to the Gators three days earlier. It was 76-63 and seemed much worse.

Although Kentucky has been consistently good more often than Florida, the Gators have also had their moments when they looked like world beaters. When Auburn came to Gainesville two weeks ago, the Tigers were ranked second nationally. They left on the short end of a 63-62 score in which the Gators played a sensational defensive game.

For Florida to have a chance to not send Kentucky home with a loss Saturday (2 p.m., CBS) at the O-Dome, the Gators will have to sustain a defensive effort like the one they had against Auburn and they’ll need to shoot the way they have the past two games (combined 51.6 percent from the field overall; combined 43.6 percent on 24-55 from the 3-point line).

Two other factors that have to play well in Florida’s favor: (1) Colin Castleton (17.5 points, 9 rebounds per game since coming back from a shoulder injury) has to stay out of foul trouble because he’s the only Gator capable of going toe-to-toe with Kentucky big man Oscar Tshiebwe (16.9 points, 15.3 rebounds) and (2) Phlandrous Fleming Jr. has to play like he has the last two games (43 points, 9 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 blocks, 4 steals) and not like he did at Rupp (8 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists).

Florida has the incentive of the NCAA Tournament to play for. Should the Gators upset UK, they will likely be off the bubble and solidly into the NCAA Tournament.

Saturday’s games: No. 7 Kentucky (24-6, 13-4 SEC) at FLORIDA (19-11, 9-8 SEC); No. 14 Arkansas (24-6, 13-4 SEC) at No. 13 Tennessee (22-7, 13-4 SEC); No. 25 Alabama (19-11, 9-8 SEC) at LSU (20-10, 8-9 SEC); South Carolina (18-11, 9-8 SEC) at No. 5 Auburn (26-4, 14-3 SEC); Georgia (6-24, 1-16 SEC) at Missouri (10-20, 4-13 SEC); Vanderbilt (14-15, 6-11 SEC) at Ole Miss (13-17, 8-9 SEC); Mississippi State (17-13, 8-9 SEC) at Texas A&M (19-11, 8-9 SEC)

GYMNASTICS: GATORS CAN CLINCH OUTRIGHT SEC TITLE AT AUBURN

The 3rd-ranked Gators clinched a share of their fourth straight Southeastern Conference championship back on February 18 when they beat 10th-ranked Kentucky in Lexington. Tonight (8 p.m., SEC Network+) the Gators can clinch the SEC title outright when they hit the road to face 6th-ranked Auburn.

Not only is this a battle of the top two teams in the SEC, it could be the deciding factor in who win’s SEC Gymnast of the Year. Florida’s Trinity Thomas has five perfect 10s this season (13 in her career) and the top all-around score in the country (39.850). Auburn’s top gymnast is freshman Sunisa Lee, the Olympic all-around gold medalist. Lee, who has two perfect 10s this season, has a high all-around score of 39.825.

BASEBALL: UF TRAVELS TO MIAMI The 14th-ranked Gators (8-2) put their 7-game winning streak on the line tonight at Mark Light Stadium in Coral Gables against 22nd-ranked Miami (7-1). Lefty Hunter Barco (2-0, 0.75 ERA, 23 strikeouts in 12 innings) will get the Friday night start for Florida. Expected to start Saturday afternoon is Brandon Sproat (1-1, 2.00 ERA, 13 strikeouts in 9 innings) and the Sunday starter should be lefty Timmy Manning (0-0, 5.63 ERA, 10 strikeouts, 8 innings).

The Gators have scored more than 10 runs and pounded out more than 10 hits in each of the last four games with 16 home runs including six in Wednesday night’s 17-0 win over Florida A&M. As a team, the Gators have a .319 batting average. Florida’s 24 home runs ranks second nationally.

SOFTBALL: BUBLY INVITATIONAL

This might be a good time for Tim Walton to work on pitching depth as the 3rd-ranked Gators (16-1) host Georgia State (5-8), Coastal Carolina (7-6) and Tennessee State (6-7) in the Bubly Invitational at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The Gators will face Georgia State at 3:30 p.m. and Coastal Carolina at 6.

The Gators have a solid starter in Natalie Lugo (5-0, 0.43 ERA) but with All-American Elizabeth Hightower (4-0, 0.69 ERA) nursing a back injury, the rest of the pitching is spotty. Lexie Delbrey (5-1, 2.27 ERA) can dominate when she has command of the strike zone, but she has 25 walks in 37 innings so far. Rylee Trlicek has pitched well in spots, but she struggled last Sunday in relief of Delbrey in a 12-11 UF win over UCF. Marissa Mesiemore (1-0, 4.38 ERA) needs to get some innings in and have some success.

The Gators are led at the plate by freshman Kendra Falby, who is hitting .527 with 23 runs, a nation-leading 29 hits and a nation-leading 16 stolen bases in 17 attempts. Charla Echols (.327) has three homers and 24 RBI while Skylar Wallace (.444) has 14 stolen bases and 15 RBI.

COMBINE WARRIORS

Here are some 40 times from SEC players at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis: Velus Jones, Tennessee 4.31; Wan’Dale Robinson, Kentucky 4.44; George Pickens, Georgia 4.47; Braylon Sanders, Ole Miss 4.48; Treylon Burks, Arkansas 4.55; Makai Polk, Mississippi State 4.59; Dontario Drummond, Ole Miss 4.65; Slade Bolden, Alabama 4.66

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Billy Napier’s Identity Program ended this morning and spring break officially begins. When the Gators get back from their week off from all things football, they’ll crank up spring football, which will be the first chance we’ll have to get a look at a team that is going through a metamorphosis. From all accounts, there are two things Napier does not tolerate: (1) Soft football teams and (2) teams that lack discipline.

Transforming from a team that opponents always characterized as soft and lacking toughness probably will take longer than just one spring since it’s about getting stronger and changing from a team that looked like a bunch of boys last year when Alabama’s grown men took the field. We probably will get a better glimpse of team discipline immediately since Napier’s Identity Program is all about instilling a measure of discipline individually and collectively. Players who expect to play in the fall by now understand that the kind of mistakes the Gators made all last year won’t be tolerated.

I know many in the Gator Nation are expecting a miracle of the walls of Jericho tumbling down proportions next year. While I hope Napier can get 9-10 wins in his first year on the job, I’ll be very happy to see a team that not only looks tougher when they run out on the field, but play tougher, too. I’ll also be very happy to see a team that doesn’t throw games away with silly mental errors like the ones that were the undoing of Dan Mullen. I feel confident that those days are over.