It’s too early in the season to talk about something like redemption, or something similar because redemption doesn’t sound right. But after two straight Sundays with very unimpressive play that surely had many questioning them, Florida turned the tide on Sunday by closing out a few days where they looked more like what some expected them to be coming into the season.
It goes right back to the idea that we can easily overreact to some things this early in the season. Juxtapose those two Sundays with Florida’s 70-65 win over Xavier to win the Charleston Classic and you understand what we will likely see from this team.
The Gators have plenty of talent, the kind of talent most teams in America would love to have. They added a big class of freshmen to a good group of veterans, though chemistry was a concern last year. When they landed Kerry Blackshear Jr. as a graduate transfer, expectations – rightly or wrongly – soared, with some thinking this is a national title contender. The Gators surely have their own expectations independent of this, especially with a coach like Mike White that has done nothing but win since he became a head coach.
Preseason polls reflected all of this, with Florida in the top 10 in most of them. Then they got handled by Florida State in a game where they shot 28 percent and turned the ball over 16 times. Then they went to UConn, a team that is improving but still far from the UConn teams of most of the last 25 years or so under Jim Calhoun and early on under Kevin Ollie, and lost a squeaker to the Huskies. Suddenly, the Gators weren’t in any polls. The talk was that this team was overrated, perhaps severely so.
But polls don’t really mean anything except to programs that are rarely if ever ranked. And the Charleston Classic offered a chance to change the narrative.
Florida opened by getting a big game from sophomore Keyontae Johnson (22 points, 12 rebounds) to beat Saint Joseph’s 70-62, a game where Blackshear got ejected. Then they ran away from in-state rival Miami in the second half 78-58, shooting 53.6 percent from the field including 10-19 from deep, and getting 20 points and 11 rebounds from Blackshear in his return.
Then came Sunday’s championship against Xavier. The Gators shot over 54 percent and had a ten-point halftime lead. Xavier would charge back, but an 8-1 Florida run past the midway point put them up 64-51, and it looked like Xavier might run out of gas before a 7-0 run got them back within 67-62. While Xavier, who made a big run in Friday night’s semifinal to force overtime, got within three, their undoing all game – turnovers (they had 18 of them) – haunted them at key times, including late, and that helped Florida hang on for the championship.
It is also notable that Johnson, one of the less heralded members of this team, was the tournament MVP after his big first game and then 15 more points on Sunday. They beat a Xavier team that had growing pains last season but looks primed to be better this time around, and they showed it in Charleston all the same.
With the first tournaments in the books, the Gators’ winning weekend after a couple of bad Sunday showings tells us more about this team. They will be very good, sure, but there will be growing pains as well. Sometimes those growing pains will manifest in the form of a loss, even one they shouldn’t have. There is bound to be more of that in the tough SEC, as well as beforehand as they still have a trip to Butler ahead, as well as a visit from Providence and a matchup with Utah State in Sunrise in the Orange Bowl Classic, and they also go to Baylor in late January in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
With no dominant team in the sport, the Gators are a sign of college basketball. No team will win or lose every game they should, or look really good or bad all the time. For this weekend, the Gators looked a lot more like the team many expected them to be, and they will on other occasions – but they might also look ordinary a time or two as well. We have already seen that with other top teams, so they are like many others in that regard.
Side Dishes
Tournament/showcase roundup:
- In other action in the Charleston Classic, UConn handled Miami 80-55 to take third place, Buffalo edged Missouri State 75-74 for fifth place, and Towson salvaged the weekend by taking seventh place with a 76-64 win over Saint Joseph’s.
- Baylor won the Myrtle Beach Invitational by taking out Villanova 87-78, while Mississippi State took third place by blowing out Coastal Carolina 81-56, Tulane took fifth with a 65-61 win over Utah, and Ohio salvaged seventh place by knocking off Middle Tennessee 75-63 behind 32 points from Jordan Dartis.
- Virginia took home the Hall of Fame Tip-Off in the Naismith Bracket by holding off Arizona State 48-45, then St. John’s took third place by using a big second half to beat UMass 78-63. In the Springfield Bracket, the title game was a mild surprise as Rider knocked off Vermont 72-67 behind 25 points and 13 rebounds from Frederick Scott, while Columbia took third place by blowing out Central Connecticut 82-52.
- Semifinal action in the Paradise Jam saw Nevada hammer Valparaiso 84-59 and Dylan Frye score 28 points to lead Bowling Green past Cincinnati 91-84 in overtime.
- The MGM Resorts Main Event also had semifinal action in Las Vegas, with Colorado breaking away from Wyoming after a low-scoring first half for a 56-41 win behind a big double-double by Tyler Bey (11 points, 19 rebounds, six assists), then a thriller in the nightcap as TCU blew a 15-point lead, had momentum again in overtime but again didn’t have it late and lost to Clemson 62-60 behind 22 points and eight rebounds by Tevin Mack.
- In the Jamaica Classic, Utah State had to come from behind again, though not to quite the same degree this time, en route to a 68-59 win over North Texas, getting 14 points and 13 rebounds from Justin Bean, while Eastern Michigan edged North Carolina A&T 58-54, LSU pulled away from Rhode Island 96-83 and Nicholls beat UMBC 82-72.
Other notable games: It took three overtimes, but Evansville outlasted Morgan State 115-112 in the Islands of the Bahamas Showcase, with K.J. Riley scoring 36 points to lead Evansville and Troy Baxter Jr. scoring 30 points and hauling down 10 rebounds for Morgan State; and in the same event, Liberty, one of last season’s big mid-major stories, moved to 8-0 with a 62-49 win over UMKC.
Tonight’s Menu
The tournaments really pick up this week, with one of the best getting underway.
- The Cayman Islands Classic gets going with Colorado State taking on New Mexico State (11 a.m.), then Loyola-Chicago takes on South Florida (1:30 p.m.), old CAA rivals clash as George Mason battles Old Dominion (5 p.m.) and Washington State takes on Nebraska to close the day (7:30 p.m.)
- In Estero, Florida, the Gulf Coast Showcase begins with a solid mid-major matchup of South Alabama taking on Northeastern (11 a.m.), then Miami (Ohio) takes on Drake (1:30 p.m.), Weber State plays Wright State (5 p.m.) and La Salle battles Murray State (7:30 p.m.)
- The NIT Orlando Season Tip-Off has a doubleheader with Yale playing Western Michigan (noon) and Seattle taking on Bucknell (2 p.m.)
- The final day of action in the Paradise Jam starts with Grand Canyon and Illinois State playing for seventh place (1 p.m.), then Fordham and Western Kentucky play in the fifth place game (3:15 p.m.), Cincinnati takes on Valparaiso for third place (5:45 p.m.) and Nevada plays Bowling Green for the championship (8 p.m.)
- Always one of the best ones is the Maui Invitational, and it gets underway with Georgia taking on Dayton (2:30 p.m.) and Virginia Tech playing Michigan State (5 p.m.) in the first session. In the evening, Kansas takes on host Chaminade (9 p.m.) and the day closes with BYU taking on UCLA (11:30 p.m.)
- In the Fort Myers Tip-Off, Pittsburgh takes on Kansas State (6 p.m.) and two Illinois schools meet as Bradley plays Northwestern (8:30 p.m.)
- Semifinal in the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City begins with Butler taking on Missouri (7 p.m.) and finishes with Stanford battling Oklahoma (9:30 p.m.)
- The Legends Classic has its semifinals on tap as well, with Wisconsin and Richmond in the opener (7 p.m.) and Auburn playing New Mexico to close it out (9:30 p.m.)
- The best non-tournament games of the day are Arkansas going to Georgia Tech (7 p.m.), Louisiana Tech visiting Indiana (8:30 p.m.) and Texas Southern traveling to Montana (9 p.m.)
