Florida’s historic beat-down of No. 1-ranked Tennessee in Gainesville on Tuesday night begged two questions.
The first: The Gators came into the game ranked No. 8 in both major polls. Were they underrated?
The answer is a resounding yes.
The second: No one can dispute the Vols — 14-0 and the last unbeaten team in the country — earned their ranking. But what to make of them after they beat Arkansas by 24 points in Knoxville on Saturday and lost 73-43 to Florida three days later?
That one isn’t so easily answered. Tennessee still has 16 SEC games to play, and as Georgia proved by beating No. 6 Kentucky, 82-69, at home on Tuesday night, the road in this league is going to be brutal. There are plenty of potential beat-downs waiting to happen. Can Rick Barnes’ Tennessee squad, which typically plays as tough and physical as any in the country, regain the swagger it had on Saturday when it manhandled the Razorbacks?
Florida’s win was so thorough, so definitive, it earned a place in the NCAA record book. The last time an unbeaten No. 1 ranked team lost by 25 or more points, UCLA — led by Lew Alcindor’s 19 points and 18 rebounds — pounded Houston 102-69 in the 1968 Final Four.
Was Gator coach Todd Golden surprised? Not really.
“I wouldn’t say (it was) stunning,” he said. “I would say I’m really pleased with the way we took advantage of our opportunities tonight. No, I didn’t expect for us to win by 30. I didn’t. We stressed it. We really did. We talked about it a ton. Tennessee, you know, they’re one of the best programs in America. We know that. They’re consistently at the top of our league and Coach Barnes has established their culture so well where … every guy that steps on the court for them is tough. … I thought our guys met the match with that fight.”
Clearly, Florida was ready. But here’s why the second question — what happens to Tennessee now? — defies a simple answer: Florida might have done the Vols a favor. Can you imagine their next film-room session? The devout Barnes doesn’t swear, but he’s a relentless taskmaster who’s not afraid to raise his voice and call out a player who incurs his wrath. He might lose his voice in the film room; there will be teaching moments galore from this game video.
“I think this is good for us,” said Barnes, who has been adamant all season — even as his team has racked up wins — that it has ample room for improvement. “We’re going to learn a lot from this. That’s the first thing I said to them because now we’re going to learn what we’ve got to do better.”
Tennessee did almost nothing right. Florida did almost nothing wrong. What’s crazy is the Gators’ best player and leading scorer Walter Clayton, Jr., pitched in just seven points in the win. He scored 33 in Florida’s 106-100 loss at Kentucky on Saturday but was hardly needed against the Vols as his teammates proceeded to beat them like a bass drum.
Florida’s shooting percentages — 39.7 from the field and 30.0 from three — wouldn’t suggest such a rout, but its 19 second-chance points, 22 fast-break points and 25 bench points compared to four, three and seven for Tennessee, were big keys. And the Gators’ defense — a point of emphasis for Golden this season — was historically good, too. They held the Vols to 12-of-56 shooting (21.4 percent), the lowest field-goal percentage by a No. 1-ranked team in the shot clock era and the lowest of any ranked team in six seasons, according to ESPN researcher Jared Berson.
Florida held the SEC’s leading scorer, 6-foot-5 super senior Chaz Lanier, to just 10 points, 10.3 below his average. Lanier was 3 of 16 from the field and 1 of 9 from three, but he had company. Point guard Zakai Zeigler was 4 of 12 and 1 of 6 and the SEC’s assist leader handed out just one dime. Third-leading scorer Jordan Gainey was 1 of 11 from the floor and 1 of 3 from behind the arc.
As bad as all that sounds, here’s what bums Barnes the most. On Saturday, the Vols outrebounded Arkansas 51-29. Against Florida, they were the recipients of a woodshedding on the glass; the Gators grabbed 55 boards, Tennessee 38.
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Seth Davis’ rankings for Week 11. Purdue moves up, five new teams move in.“(Cold shooting) happens sometimes and that’s okay, but you can’t give up on those rebounds,” Barnes said. “You just can’t. I give them credit. That’s a great mindset and effort. I thought their post guys made a great effort and did what they were set out to do and did it well.”
There’s a lot to like about this Florida team, starting with the backcourt, a trio that is skilled, talented and tough. Clayton and Alijah Martin, the 6-foot-2 super senior transfer from FAU, were both offered BCS football scholarships. They’re rugged dudes who can score at all three levels and take turns playing the point or searching for their own shots. Will Richard went through the NBA Draft process last year and was told he needed to use his length and athleticism more to his advantage. This season he’s shooting 70.8 percent from two-point range, 39th in the nation.
There’s more in the Gators’ backcourt, too. Any team in the country would like to have a fourth guard like Denzel Aberdeen, a 6-foot-5 junior. On many teams, he wouldn’t be the fourth guard, he’d be starting. He scored 16 points against Tennessee in just 20 minutes.
Despite the loss of 7-foot-1 junior Micah Handlogten, a great rebounder and rim protector who suffered a gruesome leg injury in last season’s SEC tournament title game and is redshirting, the Gators have a bruising frontcourt quartet. Two of them — sophomores Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh — were recruited out of high school by Golden and his staff. Their teammates call them the Bash Brothers. “They set the tone physically,” Golden told me last summer. “The great thing about those guys is you don’t ever feel like you’re being out competed when they’re out there.”
The other two frontcourt players came via the transfer portal. Handlogten took one for the team last spring and declared his intention to redshirt so Florida could bring in a frontcourt transfer. That helped the Gators get two of them — 6-foot-10, 250-pound sophomore Rueben Chinyelu, who began his career at Washington State, and 6-9, 240-pound Chattanooga transfer Sam Alexis. Chinyelu, a throwback of sorts because he’s a true post player, went crazy on the Vols, grabbing 15 rebounds in 22 minutes.
“A lot of bigs think they need to shoot the three if they want to play in the NBA,” Golden told me last summer. “(Chinyelu) doesn’t care. He’s down there mucking it up in the post, ducking in and getting offensive rebounds… He knows who he is and is comfortable with that.”
Put it all together and it looks a lot like the UConn teams that won the last two national championships. Maybe there isn’t a dominant big man like the Huskies had, but Golden has four physical bigs and 20 fouls to work with. And like UConn, the Gators have battled-hardened guards who can lead, make shots and create for others.
We’ll find out a lot about Florida on Saturday, when it travels to Arkansas. Calipari won’t soon forget what Tennessee did to his team on the glass and he’ll experience déjà vu when he unpacks the Florida-Tennessee video. A Florida win will give this team all the confidence it needs to cause problems in the SEC.
“I’m incredibly proud,” Golden said. “But now our biggest thing is this can’t be the highlight of our season. It’s awesome in the moment, and we’re gonna enjoy it tonight, our guys are out tomorrow. But it certainly won’t feel as good if we don’t go and find a way to win in Fayetteville on Saturday. So we’ll enjoy it tonight. We’ll start prepping for Arkansas tomorrow, and we’ve got to find a way to get to 2-1 in this league. Because any road win in this league is going to feel like gold.”
