Gators Season ends on wishes and hopes

[IHateUGAlyDawgs]

NEW YORK --- Florida’s basketball season came down to a lot of wishing and hoping Tuesday night. Because the Gators couldn’t hit a free throw and couldn’t convert numerous layups into made baskets, they were relegated to wishing and hoping the UMass Minutemen would miss some free throws. When UMass wouldn’t cooperate, Florida’s season came crashing to a halt in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament.

UMass advanced to the championship game with a 78-66 win over the Gators and the story of the game is at the foul line. The Gators couldn’t will the ball in the hoop and UMass rarely missed. Florida finished 8-21 from the foul line for the game and more importantly, 3-10 in the final 10 minutes. UMass, meanwhile, went 15-20 from the line in the second half (19-27 for the game) and 9-12 in the final ten minutes.

The opportunities were there for the Florida Gators to make it to the championship because the Gators were actually pretty good on the defensive end, holding UMass to 42.2 percent shooting from the field and only 20.8 percent from the three-point line, and when it came to rebounding, this was one of Florida’s best games of the season. When you get 20 offensive rebounds and you’re plus nine (50-41) on the glass about the only way you can lose a game is if you give it away and that’s pretty much what the Gators did.

“I think at the end --- the stat sheet --- 42 percent is not bad; 20 percent from the three point line is not bad,” said Florida coach Billy Donovan. “I don’t know if we necessarily game up 78 points. We fouled a lot at the end just to maybe lengthen the game and hope they would miss some free throws.”

It wasn’t all about the missed free throws although that had plenty to do with Florida’s loss. The Gators missed far too many shots from point blank range and even though they created plenty of chances with their offensive rebounding, they didn’t convert enough shots to pull out a win.

“I think probably the missed free throws --- you know we were 8-21 from the free throw line and one point we were 5-18 on the break with drives to the basket,” said Donovan. “I mean we missed an enormous amount of layups at the rim that you’ve got to make in a game like that.”

Florida finished the game shooting 39.4 percent (28-71) but only 16.7 percent from the three-point line. In the second half when they needed shots to drop, Florida was 0-6 from long distance.

Nothing personified Florida’s frustration more than the night Nick Calathes had. Florida’s leading scorer on the season, Calathes went 5-19 from the field and just 2-4 from the foul line. The Southeastern Conference’s leader in assists, he only had three for the night.

Included in Calathes’ 14 missed shots were nine layups or shots from chip shot range.

“I felt bad for him because he’s had such a great year and for it to end where he didn’t shoot the ball well from the free throw line --- he was 5-19 from the field and missed a lot of drives to the basket that he’s normally able to finish,” said Donovan.

“Just a bad game on my part,” said Calathes, hanging his head in the locker room. “I didn’t play very well. I think we ran our offense the way we wanted it but they made some big shots and we took too many bad shots and didn’t hit free throws. Just a bad night.”

Florida’s bad night was quite a contrast to the previous three NIT games where the Gators shot 50 percent or better.

“You’ve got to hit shots when you’re open and you’ve got to make free throws and we didn’t,” said Chandler Parsons, who went 4-6 from the field but only 1-5 from the foul line. ““Free throws, turnovers and missed layups were a big part of the game. When you control those things, you control the tempo of the game. We lost control.”

Control of the game was lost starting at the 15:27 mark in the second half. The Gators held a 44-35 lead after Parsons took an inbounds pass from Nick Calathes and laid it uncontested.

It was too easy but up until that point, everything was too easy for the Gators yet they couldn’t put the Minutemen away. It’s not like there weren’t opportunities. There were plenty of them.

And it wasn’t like UMass was really hanging around, either. The Minutemen were in the game more because the Gators couldn’t or wouldn’t put them away.

In other words, the Gators were living on borrowed time.

That caught up with them when UMass began its comeback with a 6-1 run that cut the margin to 45-41 on a Dante Milligan stick back with 14:29 left in the game. The Gators had a chance to regain control but after a Walter Hodge layup with 14:13 left, two missed free throws and an offensive foul squandered a chance to go ahead by 10 points.

UMass ripped off six straight points, tying the game at 47 on a Gary Forbes layup with 11:46 and taking the lead for the first time since 18:10 left in the first half on a Chris Lowe steal and layup with 11:27 remaining that made it 49-47. Florida would tie the game on a Hodge layup off a feed from Dan Werner, but that was the last time the Gators were that close.

When the Gators fell behind by 10 points with 2:45 to go, they tried to foul to extend the game but UMass wasn’t missing from the foul line when it counted and the Gators couldn’t get anything to fall. Even when the clock stopped three times in the final 1:30, the Gators couldn’t convert at the foul line. They went 2-6. During the same stretch, the Minutemen were 7-8.

Florida held a 36-27 lead at the half, but it could have been blowout city if they had simply made a few layups. Florida missed 13 shots within five feet and 10 of those were layups.

“There’s not much you can do when you get open shots like that and you miss so many of them,” said Parsons. “We didn’t make our shots. There’s no excuse. We just didn’t make our shots.”

“Sometimes you have games like that,” said Jai Lucas. “Some things that were working in the first half just didn’t work in the second half and they stepped up their game. They played a better game than we did. We had a good first half but we didn’t keep it going in the second half.

The Gators wasted a career night on the boards from Marreese Speights, who had 16 points to go with a career-best 18 rebounds. Werner had 11 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists while Calathes finished with 12.

Asked after the game if he’s thinking to move on to the NBA, Speights answered, “I really don’t know. I’m going to sit down with Coach and my family and see and like talk to him and see what he thinks I should do and talk to my family and see what they think I should do.”

Another year in a Gator uniform would probably do Speights a world of good and it would give Florida the experienced big man in the middle that will be needed to get back to the NCAA Tournament and about the business of competing for the SEC championship next year.

It might be wishing and hoping for Speights to return, but that’s what it will come down to in the next few weeks. Perhaps this time the wishing and hoping will pay off better than it did down the stretch Tuesday might.

[a1bion]

It was a frustrating game to watch. And Speights shouldn't even be thinking about the NBA right now--he's making progress but he ain't there yet.

[RickySlade]

It was a frustrating game to watch. And Speights shouldn't even be thinking about the NBA right now--he's making progress but he ain't there yet.

Yes, but the same can be said for 1/4 of the 1st-rounders...

[radbag]

first time i've seen speights since last years championship...he lost a SHITLOAD of weight...he's definitely doing blow.

[IHateUGAlyDawgs]

first time i've seen speights since last years championship...he lost a SHITLOAD of weight...he's definitely doing blow.

or stopped eating 5 Star.

[radbag]

he was getting mauled in the middle...was a shock for me to see him i have to be honest...i was hoping to see a big hoss in there...he's marcus camby now.

[RickySlade]

FWIW, I believe Billy D asked him to lose the weight so Speights could deal with the run-and-gun style we'd be playing (or that he thought we'd be, anyway).