The sequence captured everything about Florida’s Sweet Sixteen victory over Maryland: 6-foot-11 sophomore Alex Condon, back on the court following a first-half ankle injury, diving for a loose ball and flipping it up from the floor to 7-foot-1 junior Micah Handlogten, who followed his own miss with a tip-in. That basket gave the Gators a 61-51 lead just over midway in the second half and was part of a spurt that put Florida in control.
Grit — embodied by Condon’s return with a limp and Florida’s unrelenting pursuit of rebounds — fueled a second-half runaway and an 87-71 West Regional victory by the top-seeded Gators, who will make their first Elite Eight appearance since 2017.
“We didn’t know we were going to have him in the second half,” Florida coach Todd Golden said of Condon. “He fought to get back out on the court. Loose ball, just dives on it, makes a winning play. Pops it up to Micah and he tips it a couple times, puts the ball in. Those are backbreakers.”
Many, if not most, NCAA Tournament teams have a razor-thin margin of error. And then there are the Gators, who have a super-sized margin of error.
The class of the nation’s best conference showcased Thursday in San Francisco just how many ways it can win tournament games. Despite being loose with the ball in the first half, despite Condon’s right ankle roll, despite 6-foot-3 All-American senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. looking pedestrian offensively, the Gators eliminated any late-game suspense with a dominant performance on the boards. They outrebounded the fourth-seeded Terrapins 42-20.
“That’s who we are — that’s our DNA,” Golden said. “That’s what makes us so good. … We were awesome on the glass all night, both sides of the ball (Florida had 15 offensive rebounds). And we started taking advantage of the opportunities we got in transition. That allowed us to step on the gas a little bit and break away from them.”
Yes, this was another uneven performance by the Gators — expectations are high for a No. 1 seed — a second consecutive game in which they weren’t able to achieve breathing room until the second half. Florida committed 13 first-half turnovers, most of which occurred in the halfcourt against a team not especially known for forcing turnovers. Golden said the goal was to limit turnovers to 12 the entire game; the Gators finished with 17.
“The message was simple: We have to take care of the ball,” Golden said. “If we didn’t do that, we would have put ourselves in jeopardy of going home tonight. We were elite in the second half.”
Florida has earned an Elite Eight berth in Golden’s third season at the school. He is a rising star in the coaching ranks who has returned this weekend to the Bay Area, where he played at Saint Mary’s and cut his head-coaching teeth at San Francisco.
The Gators got a scare when Condon limped off the court about eight minutes into the action, turning the same ankle he injured in February. Condon is more than the Gators’ leading rebounder. He was among the honorees on Hoops HQ’s Seth Davis’ 26th annual All-Glue team. With Condon out, Golden felt his team got “out of sorts a bit.”
When Condon, who tried to regain mobility by riding an exercise bike near the hallway leading to the locker room, checked back into the game with 13:29 to play, it appeared to give the Gators the emotional lift they needed to pull away.
And achieving some separation from Maryland is no easy feat; Maryland had not lost a game by more than six points all season. But once the Gators stopped turning the ball over, there was no way for the Terps to keep pace. The deep Gators had a 29-3 advantage in bench points. Maryland’s starters, nicknamed The Crab Five, was overwhelmed by Florida’s depth.
“A big thing we had talked about as a staff in our prep was, ‘We’ve got to trust our bench,’” Golden said. “That was a huge advantage for us.”
