The bombardment has lasted 60 minutes, so far.
It began last Tuesday night at Alabama, with a five-minute, 16-0 blitz to open the second half of the Gators’ win against the Crimson Tide. Florida shot 50 percent in the final 20 minutes of that game and hasn’t stopped making at least half of its attempts since.
Last Saturday, Arkansas was left in a similar scoring daze as the Gators hit 16 straight field goals stretching over two halves and blew out the Razorbacks by 30 points.
Tonight at 7, No. 12 Florida (21-6, 9-3 Southeastern Conference) will again look to keep its recently potent offense buzzing at home against Auburn (14-12, 4-8 SEC) — a team that is 0-6 on the road in league play and near the bottom of the standings.
But even with the Tigers’ recent struggles in mind, Kenny Boynton won’t be going into the O’Connell Center overconfident.
As Florida’s guards showed last season in Auburn’s arena, a poor — even horrific — shooting display is not outside the realm of possibility for Boynton and senior Erving Walker.
“With Auburn last year, playing them, we had a rough game on the road — a rough shooting night,” Boynton said. “We couldn’t hit anything. … We were just playing that bad. I remember I was missing some easy shots. I think we even missed some layups down there.”
Nine missed layups to be exact, including three by Boynton, who finished 3 of 13 from the field. The Gators, meanwhile, shot a mystifying 28.3 percent overall on field goals and 19.2 percent beyond the arc.
Florida’s 45 points in its five-point win against Auburn were the fewest any Billy Donovan-coached team has scored in his 16 seasons at UF.
“I just recall them sitting in a zone and just letting us shoot,” said
Walker, who, like Boynton, was 2 of 9 from three last Jan. 20. “We couldn’t throw a rock in the ocean.”
While the Tigers frustrated the Gators in their 2011 meeting primarily with a single defensive set, the 2-3 zone, Florida is preparing for Auburn to throw a variety of formations, including a 2-2-1 press and stints of man-to-man its way this time.
Boynton said ball movement and getting good penetration into the lane will be important in opening up the Tigers’ aggressive defense.
The Gators will also focus on working the ball into 6-foot-9 center Patric Young, who was in foul trouble for most of the Arkansas win but had a team-high 19 points at Alabama. The four Florida big men who scored last year at Auburn, including Young, were only able to notch 19 points combined.
“As long as we play unselfishly and make good decisions and the right passes, I think the defense always dictates where the ball needs to go,” Donovan said. “I thought in the game against Arkansas we did a good job of that. How Auburn guards us, and the decisions we’ll have to make in that game, presents its own challenge as itself.”
Regardless of where Florida finds scoring, Donovan wants his team’s play to be judged by more than just how many threes it makes, whether that be the 13 the Gators made at Arkansas or five at Auburn last year.
“I just have never been a big believer of the fact that if the ball goes in the basket, you play well,” he said.
“What I was pleased with is that I felt that our spacing, our ball movement, our shot selection was great. Once the shot goes up and we don’t make them, you still have to go and do some other things.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Florida guard Kenny Boynton, who is coming off a 25-point performance in a 30-point win Saturday, said the Gators aren’t overlooking Auburn.
