I refuse to join the crowd who always blames the refs every Gator basketball game. That just ain't real. There is no SEC bias against Florida. But Gator fans are passionate and all fans see things through an orange and blue lens, especially in basketball where there are so many subjective calls. We were called for 19 fouls tonight, Missouri for 18. We shot 23 free throws and made only 15. They shot 20 and made 16. The reasons the game was as close as it was are many: 1) This is the SEC. There are no easy games in this conference. 2) Will Richard had a terrible game. 1-9 from the field, 1-8 shooting 3's and only scored 4 points. All year, when he's played well we win, when it doesn't play well, the game is a struggle. 3) Walter Clayton had an off night by his standards, lost his cool and fouled out with 15 minutes left in the gaem. He only scored 13 points, playing only 22 minutes. He is THE guy in our offense. Losing him down the stretch and still winning by 9 is a real testament to how much this team has improved. 4) Riley Kugel struggled again. Played 20 minutes with only 3 point, no rebounds, no assists. He's the best pure athlete on the team and when he plays well, the team soars. He's become an enigma and we never know what to expect from him, but didn't help much tonight. 5) While Micah Handlogten had a very good game, Haugh and Condon didn't do much. Haugh only plaed 11 minutes and didn't score; Condon only played 10 minutes with 1 point.
From my viewpoint, we won the game by 9 points and Todd Golden is doing a great job of adjusting the rotations each game depending on which guys are performing the best. We have the depth so that different guys can pick up the load when other guys falter. Not having Clayton for the last 15 minutes of the game andyet Tyrese Samuel stepped up with a monster game,as did Zyon Pullin and Handlogten and they found a way to win by 9. We had a lot of things go against us tonight and still won the game. Rejoice!!!