UF Hoops: Can the Gators Handle Mississippi State's Physicality?

Todd Golden knows what it is going to take tonight (8:30 p.m., SEC Network) when the Mississippi State Bulldogs (13-5, 2-3 SEC) pay a visit to the O-Dome to face the Gators (12-6, 2-3 SEC).

Todd Golden - Photo by Chris Spears

“They’re physical,” Golden said Tuesday afternoon. “They’re a team that can max their physicality, especially on their home court.”

The Bulldogs are physical enough that they beat the same Tennessee Vols who pushed and shoved the Gators into 19-point loss in Knoxville last week. In beating Tennessee in Starkville, Mississippi State got an overpowering inside performance from 6-11 Tolu Smith, who scored 23 points while fouling out Jonas Adoo. On the outside, freshman Josh Hubbard caught fire from the 3-point line, knocking down five on his way to a 25-point effort.

Defensively, Mississippi State held the Vols to 8-29 (27.6 percent) from the 3-point line while forcing 16 turnovers. So, heading into tonight’s game, the Gators have to deal with the three things that have been thorns in their side in their six losses: physical opponents, knocking down 3-pointers and taking care of the basketball.

Fortunately, the Gators get Mississippi State at the O-Dome where they are 7-1, so that’s a plus. Also a plus, the Gators have the momentum of their first true road win of the year, 79-67 over Missouri. The Gators got the win in Columbia because they were the more physical team as evidenced by a 40-27 rebounding margin, shot the 3-ball well (9-22, 40.9 percent) and limited the turnovers (8).  Although Missouri is a bottom tier team in the SEC, winning in Columbia isn’t easy.

It helped that the Gators played one of their most complete games of the year.

“We just executed well, you know, in terms of the gameplan, and we went back yesterday and showed our team, like, the keys, we always talk keys and personnel for every game, right, so we showed them the keys again yesterday from the Missouri game, kind of gave them grades for how we executing in bang, bang, bang, we were pretty dang good,” Golden said. “One area was our ball-screen coverage where we were a little inconsistent with our communication, but keeping on transition, yes, take away catch and shoot threes, yes, not turning the ball over, yes, you know, and we keep it simple, you do those things you give yourself a great chance to win. So, you know, our gameplan defensively is gonna be different against Mississippi State. They provide different challenges than Missouri does, but, you know, if we’re able to execute at the same level, we’ll give ourselves a really good chance to win again.”

The Bulldogs have the size to compete with the Gators on the backboards (Florida leads the nation in rebounding) and they have a big man in Smith who is capable of taking a game over at both ends of the court. They are the best team in the SEC at forcing opponents to shoot poorly from the 3-point line (allowing just 27.6 percent) and they force plenty of turnovers. The physical style they employ under head coach Chris Jans is quite similar to the approach taken by his predecessor Ben Howland.

Howland teams turn basketball games into rock fights. The Bulldogs are 11th in the SEC in scoring (74.94 points per game) but third in scoring defense (65.67).

“Coach Jans has done a really good job with their mentality, their physicality,” Golden said. “The one thing I think that Coach Jans deserves credit for in this day and age is they start four guys that played for Ben Howland. So he’s been able to retain a big part of their nucleus for a couple years now. And when you look at Tolu Smith, DJ Jeffries, Cam Matthews, Shakeel Moore, all those guys were part of the previous regime, but  they wanted to play for Coach Jans. He’s a good coach and he's tough, and they’re kind of similar to how they were under Howland. But that continuity has definitely helped them out quite a bit and then you throw in a Jimmy Bell and a Josh Hubbard, now you got a damn good team. That’s what they are right now.”

It is critical for the Gators to hold serve at home. The SEC is so tough this season from top to bottom of the league that a 9-9 record in conference play should get an NCAA Tournament bid. While it is still January, it’s never too early to be talking about the NCAA Tournament. Florida has tonight’s game with Mississippi State and Saturday with Georgia in the O-Dome, then they hit the road for games at Kentucky and Texas A&M followed by Auburn at home. With that kind of schedule, it is almost imperative for the Gators to go 2-0 at home this week.

Anticipated starters

FLORIDA (12-6, 2-3 SEC): 6-10 Tyrese Samuel (13.6 points, 8.3 rebounds); 7-1 Micah Handlogten (6-5 points, 7.7 rebounds); 6-4 Will Richard (10.8 points, 3.6 rebounds); Walter Clayton Jr. (15.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists); 6-4 Zyon Pullin (14.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.7 assists)

Mississippi State (15-3, 2-3 SEC): 6-7 D.J. Jeffries (6.9 points, 5.7 rebounds); 6-11 Tolu Smith (19.7 points, 7.7 rebounds); 6-7 Cameron Matthews (9.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists); 6-1 Shakeel Moore (7.7 points, 2.6 rebounds); 6-2 Dashawn Davis (7.0 points, 1.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists)

SEC basketball

Tuesday’s scores: South Carolina (16-3, 4-2 SEC) 79, No. 6 Kentucky (14-5, 4-2 SEC) 62; Texas A&M (12-7, 3-3 SEC) 63, Missouri (8-11, 0-6 SEC) 57

Tonight’s games: Mississippi State (15-3, 2-3 SEC) at FLORIDA (12-6, 2-3 SEC); No. 8 Auburn (16-2, 5-0 SEC) at Alabama (12-6, 4-1); Arkansas (10-8, 1-4 SEC) at Ole Miss (15-3, 2-3 SEC); LSU (11-7, 3-2 SEC) at Georgia (13-5, 3-2 SEC)