Like most other NCAA Tournament teams at the moment, the Gators are going into their preparation for this week’s opening-round game largely blind.
Less than a day after discovering the identity of their first opponent, Florida’s players were only able to repeat vague details they have heard throughout the season concerning Virginia’s stingy defense and plodding offense.
Senior guard Erving Walker said he caught a couple UVA games on TV earlier this year, though he “never watched closely.”
Before venturing into his first taste of March Madness, Brad Beal said he “knows nothing” about the Cavaliers, a team the Gators have only played once in school history — a six-point loss in 1992.
Both might want to start by learning one name: Mike Scott.
He’s the only Virginia player UF coach Billy Donovan mentioned in his Monday morning press conference and for good reason.
In his fifth season with the Cavaliers, Scott — the Atlantic Coast Conference’s runner-up for Player of the Year — has grown into one of the nation’s most versatile scorers down low.
“He clearly would be one of the better players in the SEC and clearly is one of the best players in the ACC,” Donovan said. “He is a consummate scorer, because he can do it on the offensive glass, he can do it from the post, he can do it from stepping away from the basket and shooting it and also he can do it off the dribble. So, he is really a handful.”
Scott, a 6-foot-8, 237-pound forward, scores 18.1 points per game and has led Virginia in points or rebounds in 29 of the team’s 31 games.
In conference play alone, he accounted for 32.7 percent of the Cavaliers’ total points and was the only UVA player to average double-figures.
Donovan compared Scott to Mississippi State freshman Arnett Moultrie, who notched a double-double against Florida in late January.
“He’s a different kind of player but kind of a similar impact as Moultrie,” Donovan said. “He’s all over the place. And I think that can be very similar to Scott because he’s kind of all over the place. They can move him around because he can create his own shot for himself in a lot of ways.”
As a team, the Cavaliers average just 63.1 points per game — the third-lowest in the ACC this season — making Scott’s ability to score even more critical for Virginia.
While the Gators have a clear-cut offensive threat to focus on going forward, the same cannot be said for the Cavaliers. UF has had five different leading scorers in its last seven games and, aside from Beal, has struggled to get consistent scoring from its guards down the stretch.
Kenny Boynton, the Gators’ leading scorer at 16.3 points per game, has been held to single-digits in two of his last three games, including a season-low two points Saturday in New Orleans against Kentucky.
Walker’s offensive numbers have also slipped with three straight games under his average of 12.1 points, though the point guard has kept a positive assist-to-turnover ratio in each outing.
“We definitely want to play better, but I don’t think it is all on us,” Walker said. “We’re a team, and no one or two players can just change everything.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Virginia senior forward Mike Scott (left) is averaging 18.1 points per game and was named the ACC’s runner-up for Player of the Year.
