For nearly a week, the West region of the NCAA Tournament was a tease.
After two rounds in Omaha, Neb., the potential fireworks from Florida facing a team with a similarly potent offense and frenzied pace in the early rounds never came.
Instead, a second-round upset of second-seeded Missouri eliminated any possibility of such a matchup, leaving the No. 7 seed Gators to easily dictate the speed and tempo of their two blowout wins against 10th-seeded Virginia and No. 15 seed Norfolk State.
Heading into the Sweet 16 this Thursday in Phoenix, coach Billy Donovan hinted the wait could be over.
No. 3 seed Marquette has proven this season it can run with and pressure anyone.
“They’ve got great speed and quickness,” Donovan said. “People might look at their size and say they’re undersized, but I would disagree. I think they’re a great offensive rebounding team, they’re an attack team and they push the ball very hard.”
The Golden Eagles sprinted through the regular season as the Big East’s most potent scoring offense at 75.9 points per game, fueled in large part by their powerful blend of full- and half-court pressure.
Led by 6-foot-6 senior Jae Crowder, the conference player of the year, Marquette forces 8.7 steals per game — 12th-most in the nation — and has scored 38 points off 33 combined turnovers in its first two wins in the tournament against No. 14 seed BYU and sixth-seeded Murray State.
Crowder, who averages 17.6 points and ranks 10th in the nation at 2.5 steals per game, snagged a total of seven steals in both victories.
“They’re a quick-reacting team,” Donovan said. “Taking care of the basketball in any game becomes important, but certainly against them with the way they play it will be equally important because they certainly manufacture a lot of points with deflections and tips and steals.”
While the Gators have allowed double-digit turnovers just twice in their last six games, both instances have come in the NCAA Tournament. Florida gave possession away 12 times last Friday against Virginia and 13 times two days later while playing Norfolk State.
Donovan pointed to freshman starter Brad Beal as a player whose decision-making will be critical in the next round.
Through two games in the NCAA Tournament, Beal has a team-high six turnovers.
“(In college), passes that you could normally make in high school that would be an easy pass or layup for somebody or an open shot, sometimes at this level is deflected or stolen.” Donovan said. “A lot of Brad’s turnovers came from that. I don’t want to say carelessness, but thinking something’s there that’s not there or something’s open for a moment and then it gets closed down.”
Before the NCAA Tournament began, Beal looked to have a handle on his turnovers, committing just three in UF’s previous five games. The stretch featured two matchups with top-seeded Kentucky and games against equally tough teams inside like No. 5 seed Vanderbilt and No. 9 seed Alabama.
Though his giveaways have increased recently, Beal said he has grown more comfortable driving the lane and even running Florida’s offense when the Gators are in need of a primary ball-handler aside from Erving Walker.
“We play with a tremendous amount of confidence and we don’t back down from anybody,” Beal said. “Just because they’re tough, (doesn’t mean) we’re (not) going to come out and play and compete hard and play the way coach wants us to play.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Freshman guard Brad Beal (23) gets tangled up with Norfolk State forward A.J. Rogers and guard Brandon Wheeless while driving to the basket in UF’s third-round win Sunday.
