By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:
WHEN IN DOUBT, PUT IT TO A VOTE
It was during a second half time out, which one Al Pinkins can’t recall off the top of his head, that democracy ruled in the Florida basketball huddle. The Gators were having all sorts of trouble getting stops defensively on Rick Pitino’s Iona Gaels, who seemed to be one pass ahead of the Florida defense.
After consulting with his assistant coaches, Pinkins, in his first game as Florida’s head coach, decided to ask the guys playing the game what they wanted to do.
“The first half we were going zone to man, zone to man,” said Pinkins, Florida’s interim head coach for all of three days following the surprising decision by Mike White to leave for the Georgia job on Sunday. “In the second half – I can’t remember which timeout – I asked the guys, ‘Hey guys, what do you believe in? What do you want to play?’ They said one, which is our man, so we stopped switching defenses and just went to man-to-man for a long period of time and we just started getting stops.”
In all probability, the time out Pinkins was referring to was the under-12 media break with 10:49 to go. The Gators were trailing Iona, 58-52, at that point in the game and it seemed that every time the Gators closed the gap on the Gaels, they couldn’t get a defensive stop. Over the next 1:02, Florida outscored Iona 6-0 to tie the game with four of the points the direct result of the defense – a steal by Kowacie Reeves that led to a Niels Lane jumper in the paint followed by a pressure that forced an Iona turnover that allowed the Gators to tie the score at the other end on a Colin Castleton dunk back of a Tyree Appleby missed layup. That was the first time the score had been tied the entire game.
A pair of Appleby free throws with 9:21 left gave the Gators their first lead of the game at 60-59, but Iona regained the lead on a stickback by Nelly Joseph. That’s when the defensive pressure ratcheted up even more. Iona suddenly couldn’t score and the Gators couldn’t miss. UF went on an 8-0 run with Appleby hitting back-to-back 3-pointers and Castleton scoring on a layup off a nifty pass from Phlandrous Fleming Jr. for a 68-61 lead.
Things did get a little dicey toward the end when the Gators had some problems inbounding the ball and making free throws – three misses in a row – but after allowing Iona to tie the game at 72-72, the Florida defense kicked in one more time. The Gators outscored Iona 7-2 over the final 2:54 to finish off a very emotional win that was all about the guy they call Coach Pink.
“It was all for Coach Pink,” Appleby said. “He came in, he told us we weren’t going to do anything special. We’re just going to keep it simple and have the game plan ready for Iona because you know they’re a well-coached team. I think it was just for him, just wanting him to be a first-time head coach. Just winning felt good.”
It had to feel good for Appleby, who has been playing hurt lately. He finished the game with 14 points, three rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots. Before the game, Pinkins told him if the Gators were going to win this game, he would have to play well.
“[He] didn’t play well in the SEC Tournament,” Pinkins said. “Our staff challenged him the last two days in practice. We talked about him being a guy for us, like you’re our guy, like ‘if you don’t play well, we don’t win. We hate to put that pressure on you.’ We knew he could take that and he would own it and he owned it.”
It was a solid performance for a team whose coach surprised them by leaving with games remaining to play. Pinkins said the Gators were in emotional shock when they practiced Sunday, but they bounced on Monday.
“We had like two really good days of practice,” Pinkins said. “Monday and Tuesday, I thought were probably the best we’ve had all year with energy and focus. I thought our walk-through today was unbelievable – walked through everything … details and I thought they were as good as they’ve been in a long time with just details.”
Castleton finished the game with 18 points, 13 rebounds and two steals while Fleming had 18 points, five rebounds, one assist, two steals and two blocked shots. Among the 14 points scored by freshman Kowacie Reeves were three 3-pointers and two thunderous dunks.
The Gators will face Xavier (19-13) in Cincinnati Sunday at 1 p.m. in their next NIT action.
SEC Basketball
NIT
Wednesday’s scores: Virginia (20-13) 60, Mississippi State (18-16) 57
NCAA
Thursday’s games
South Region
14 Longwood (26-6) vs. 3 Tennessee (26-7)
East Region
15 St. Peter’s (19-11) vs. 2 Kentucky (26-7)
West Region
13 Vermont (28-5) vs. 4 Arkansas (25-8)
UF LACROSSE: NO. 13 GATORS STUN NO. 3 SYRACUSE
The Gators (3-4) put together their best defensive effort of the season Wednesday afternoon at Donald Dizney Stadium when they scored a 14-10 win over 3rd-ranked Syracuse (6-2), holding the Orange to their lowest scoring output of the season. Danielle Pavinelli led the Gators with four goals and three assists, while Maggi Hall and Ashley Gonzalez each added three goals. Emma LoPinto had two goals and a game-high four assists.
The Gators will travel to Philadelphia Sunday to face Drexel.
UF MEN’S TENNIS: NO. 1 FLORIDA 7, ILLINOIS 0
The Gators, the 2021 NCAA champions who regained the No. 1 ranking after a weekend when they took out No. 8 Georgia and then No. 1 Tennessee on the road, improved to 12-2 on the season Wednesday afternoon with a 7-0 non-conference win over Illinois.
The Gators (4-0 SEC) return to conference action this weekend when they play host to Ole Miss (Friday) and Mississippi State (Sunday).
Sophomore Ben Shelton is the SEC Player of the Week for the second consecutive week, the first time a Gator has ever won the award back-to-back.
MARCHING TO THE MADNESS
I have No. 4 Providence (25-5) and No. 13 South Dakota State (30-4) circled as my most likely upset of the first round of the NCAA Tournament. South Dakota State has won 21 straight games and might have the best player you’ve never heard of in 6-6 point guard Baylor Scheiermann, who hits 47.3 percent of his 3-pointers and averages 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. The Jackrabbits go 11 deep, don’t turn the ball over and they hit 52.5 percent overall from the field and 44.9 percent from the 3-point line. I’m not sold on Providence or any Big East team not named Villanova.
I have all three SEC teams – Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas – advancing without a whole lot of difficulty. The only SEC team that I don’t think gets out of the first round is LSU, which plays Iowa State Friday. If Will Wade hadn’t been fired, I’d have the SEC going 6-0 in the first round.
I’m still perturbed that the NCAA Tournament committee put nine Big Ten teams in, which is about three or four too many, and excluded Texas A&M. I also believe the ACC got too many teams in. Notre Dame beat Rutgers in a play-in game, but neither of those teams should have sniffed the tournament.
I expect the Big Ten, which is 1-1 in playoff games after Rutgers lost to Notre Dame in double overtime Wednesday night, to go 1-2 today. I’ve got Colorado State (25-5) all over a Michigan (17-14) team that has no business in this tournament in the South Region and I think Indiana (21-13), which had to win a play-in game on Tuesday, to take a powder against a 5th-seeded Saint Mary’s team in an East Region game. Iowa (26-9) is favored by 10.5 points in a 5-12 game with Richmond (22-13). I expect Iowa to win but I wouldn’t be shocked if Richmond gives the Hawkeyes as much as they can handle.
Best game of the day might turn out to be No. 10 San Francisco (24-9) vs. No. 7 Murray State (30-2) in an East Regional game. I love the matchup between San Francisco big man Yauhen Massalski (6-9, 240 … 13.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.2 blocked shots) and Murray State’s center KJ Williams (6-10, 245 … 18.2 points, 8.6 rebounds). I think this game goes mid-80s to high-90s.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: This is in no way meant to disrespect UCF (25-3), which has put together a marvelous season to win the American Athletic Conference championship, but someone at the NCAA needs to explain how it is that the Florida Gators (21-10) are a No. 10 seed and UCF is a No. 7. UCF is a conference champ of a decent conference and no doubt worthy of a No. 7, but the Gators finished fifth in the Southeastern Conference which has eight teams in the NCAA Tournament and is, unquestionably the toughest league top to bottom in the entire country. Could UCF have finished fifth in the SEC? Could the Knights have won 25 games in the SEC? It’s a pipe dream to think they could have.
While they’re about it, perhaps the NCAA folks could also explain how it is that Florida won five games against ranked teams in the month of February and is a No. 10. Among the wins were a 25-point hammering of Kentucky in Lexington, a win over LSU in Gainesville, a 25-point win over Tennessee in Gainesville and a win over Georgia in Athens. LSU (25-5) is a No. 2 seed, but the Tigers barely beat the Gators when they had a rematch in Baton Rouge. Tennessee (23-8) is a No. 3 seed but the Lady Vols lost to every ranked team they played in the month of February. Kentucky (19-11) and Georgia (20-9) are No. 6 seeds. Both finished behind the Gators in the SEC standings.
Do the Gators feel disrespected? Kelly Rae Finley isn’t about to give UCF any bulletin board material, but she can’t help but wonder why it is the Gators are seeded so far down and teams they hammered got better seedings and better pairings. As a No. 10 in the Bridgeport Region, the Gators are playing their opening game Saturday against UCF on UConn’s home court in Storrs. Win and there is an almost 100 percent chance they’ll be playing UConn in a sold-out arena.
The NCAA Women’s Tournament operates differently than the men’s. All the men’s tournament games are played in neutral site arenas. To ensure better crowds, the first two rounds of the women’s tournament are played on campus. It certainly generates larger crowds, but fair it certainly isn’t. Beating a very good UCF team would be difficult no matter where it’s played but win that one and it almost becomes mission impossible. It’s that way for every team in the women’s tournament that has to play a road game on someone else’s home court rather than getting a fairer shot at a neutral arena.
By playing the entire men’s tournament in neutral arenas, the NCAA has made it possible for Cinderellas to have a chance. It’s rare when we get a team like 2018 Loyola, which made the Final Four as a No. 11 seed. Usually, the teams are top four seeds but neutral arenas make it possible for a team like the Fighting Sister Jeans (Loyola) to get there.
I’m not at all certain the NCAA Women’s Tournament has ever been won by a team seeded outside No. 4 or if a team seeded outside No. 6 has ever made the championship game, but I can almost guarantee that it won’t ever happen when you’re playing the first two rounds on campuses with the host team a top four seed.
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