OMAHA, Neb.
Maybe Florida was just playing possum all season long.
The Gators were no better than average defensively all year, but they’ve turned it on when it matters most.
On Friday, UF held Virginia to just 0.71 points per possession, by far the lowest the Cavaliers have scored in a game this season.
Florida put on a similar display Sunday against Norfolk State, holding the upstart Spartans to just .59 points per possession before halftime. That figure helped UF put Norfolk in an impossibly large 28-point hole.
If UF’s commitment to defense holds and the Gators maintain the kind of intensity they’ve shown in the first two NCAA Tournament games, this team has what it takes to make a run at a national title.
The Gators entered the Tournament with the classic profile of a team ripe to be upset in the early rounds.
Three-reliant Florida ranked third in the nation in offensive efficiency and just 89th in defensive efficiency coming into Sunday, according to KenPom.com.
That profile is eerily similar to the trio of top-four seeds that got knocked off in the Tournament’s opening round.
Two-seed Duke (11th in offense, 66th in defense), two-seed Missouri (first in offense, 116th in defense) and four-seed Michigan (21st in offense, 59th in defense) were all three-reliant throughout the year, and each was handed a devastating opening-round upset.
So how did Florida avoid the fate of it’s oddly similar counterparts?
Defense.
In one respect, the sudden emergence was highly unlikely.
The five games after Florida lost Will Yeguete for the season with a broken foot were five of UF’s seven worst of the season in terms of points per possession allowed.
By leaps and bounds UF’s best defender, Yeguete gave the Gators a versatile player who could guard every position but center and be a menace at the top of the press.
But, with the surfacing of Casey Prather and the jelling of new rotations, Florida has been able to pressure opponents almost as effectively as it did with Yeguete in the lineup.
A switch to the press helped the Gators climb out of an early 10-2 hole against the Cavaliers, and a similar switch paved the way for a 25-0 run against the Spartans on Sunday.
In another respect, Florida’s suddenly strong play on defense can’t be considered all that shocking. When the Gators have struggled this season, the lapses were blamed on effort and focus.
In the NCAA Tournament, where every game could be your last, it can’t be too surprising that Florida has found its groove on the defensive end and avoided similar mistakes.
“We proved that the last two games against Virginia and [Sunday against Norfolk State] that we could play really great defense and if we lock in on those things and come up with the loose balls and the rebounds,” Patric Young said. “We need to keep that intensity up every game. Should’ve had that from the beginning of the season.”
Maybe Brad Beal and Erving Walker are fighting through screens a little harder with so much on the line, and maybe Kenny Boynton is crashing the defensive glass with more passion.
His five defensive boards against Virginia tied a season-high, and his eight against Norfolk State set a new one, as well as a career-high.
A two-game sample against two average-at-best offensive teams isn’t enough to say Florida will be a defensive juggernaut the rest of the way.
But there’s definitely reason to be more optimistic than before the Tournament began.
If the effort and intensity stay where they’ve been the past two games, there’s no reason Florida can’t overcome the curse of three-happy, offense-reliant teams.
“The motivation of knowing what’s on the line and what’s at risk if we lose, we have to do those things to continue our season,” Young said. “If we do that and take care of those little things, we can keep going.”
Contact Greg Luca at gluca@alligator.org.
