TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s 83-78 loss to Florida State on Sunday unveiled an illuminating trend to coach Mike White.
“It’s been a common theme for us defensively in all three of our loses,” White said. “In the second half, it’s just not the same.”
To elaborate, Florida (7-3) gave up 45 to Gonzaga, 43 to Duke and 47 to FSU in the second half.
Could it be that the Gators are simply getting tired late in games?
The $64.5 million renovations at the O’Connell Center have forced Florida to play the first third of its season on the road, traveling to smaller arenas around the state for home games.
But White said the schedule isn’t responsible for Florida’s second-half sleepwalking.
“They've worked hard, but we've shortened practices,” White said. “We've given plenty of days off. It's more of a maturity mentality, mental and physical toughness kind of thing."
Whatever the reason, it’s materialized itself in careless second-half defense. In Florida’s first two losses, Gonzaga and Duke shot above 60 percent from the field in the second half.
In Sunday’s game in Tallahassee, the Seminoles went from shooting 36.7 percent in the first half to 55.2 percent in the second — nearly a 20-percent increase.
“I thought they were terrific offensively in the second half,” White said. “We were playing in scramble mode.”
FSU guard Dwayne Bacon dropped 16 of his 24 points in the second half.
White said Bacon started the half by infiltrating the paint and breaking down Florida’s defense from the inside out.
“You gotta step in front of him and cut him off, and we didn’t do that,” senior point guard Kasey Hill said.
And it wasn’t just Florida’s defense that disappeared. Florida’s offense was marred by a stretch of turnovers, missed layups and rushed shots. The dry spell gave way to an 18-6 FSU run.
“I definitely felt the momentum changing,” Hill said.
Hill set the pace for UF’s offense early, scoring 15 in the first half on 7-of-10 shooting. But when Florida’s shooting guard, KeVaughn Allen, got into foul trouble, Hill had to pick up the load.
And after being forced to play 18 minutes in the first half, Florida State’s defense clamped down in the second, holding him to six points.
White said Hill should’ve gotten the ball more.
“A couple times out of timeouts, we would want to initiate a play with Kasey at the point, and we couldn’t get it to Kasey,” White said.
Florida guard Kasey Hill drives to the basket as Florida Gulf Coast forward Kevin Mickle defends during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Friday Nov. 11, 2016, in Jacksonville, Fla. (Bob Mack/The Florida Times-Union via AP)
