Although No. 6 Florida has moved away from being a traditional three-point shooting team this season, it needed to return to its old ways during Thursday night’s 68-62 win over Alabama.
The Gators (16-2, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) struggled to break into the paint against the Crimson Tide’s (8-10, 2-3 SEC) 2-3 zone early and turned to Michael Frazier II to bail them out from beyond the arc.
Frazier, who was held scoreless for the first time this season Saturday against Auburn, started the game 1 of 6 from three but found his stroke to finish the contest 4 of 7. The sophomore guard’s 13 attempts were the most in his career.
“He’s just got to keep shooting it,” coach Billy Donovan said. “He had really, really good looks. And this could’ve been a game with his shooting that he could’ve, by himself, shot them out of the zone. I think he could’ve even had a bigger night and could’ve taken more threes.”
All of Frazier’s field goals were three-pointers, but he added three free throws to end the night with 18 points. One of his free throws came as a part of a four-point play with 4.6 seconds remaining in the first half.
After Frazier’s 21-point performance against Georgia on Jan. 14, in which he started 1 of 8 from three only to knock down the next four, forward Dorian Finney-Smith said the team trusted Frazier even more than he trusted himself.
Following Thursday night’s win, Finney-Smith echoed his message from more than a week ago.
“If he misses seven in a row, we still got confidence in him that he’s going to make the next one,” he said.
“We get mad at him and everybody says to him, ‘Just keep shooting.’ Mike Frazier’s the type that he just hits five in a row out of nowhere.”
Coming into Thursday night’s matchup, only 30.3 percent of the Gators’ shots were three-pointers, which is the school’s lowest since KenPom.com started recording the stat in 2003. But Florida was forced to shoot 46 percent of its shots from beyond the arc against Alabama.
The Gators’ 28 attempted threes were the most this season, and their 17 attempted threes in the first half were the most to open a game since their 63-60 loss to Missouri on Feb. 19.
Although Florida only landed 10 threes, Alabama had to settle for just two the entire game, which tied a season low.
“Our 10 threes really offset the fact that they made two,” Donovan said. “When you’re playing zone, you have a chance to give up a lot of threes, and we made 10 of them even though we took 28. They were there.”
The Crimson Tide’s zone prevented the Gators’ frontcourt in Finney-Smith, Patric Young and Will Yeguete from doing anything offensively. The three big men totaled only 17 combined points.
However, their rebounding kept Florida in the game when Frazier and company struggled to make shots early in the game.
Together, Finney-Smith and Yeguete recorded 22 of the Gators’ 42 rebounds, including 10 of the team’s 18 offensive boards.
“Those guys got to the backboard, which was encouraging,” Donovan said. “When you’re a frontcourt player against zone, you’ve got to get it off the backboard.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn
Michael Frazier II (20) is pressured by Alabama’s Algie Key (0) during the No. 6 Gators’ 68-62 win against the Crimson Tide in Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Thursday. Frazier scored 18 points against Alabama.
