bball - gators trounce high point
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:54 am
No more beating up on the little guys for Florida.
Sophomore center Marreese Speights set career highs for points (24) and rebounds (15) against High Point in the Gators' final non-conference game on Wednesday night at the O'Connell Center, but it may not mean much when they open league play on Jan. 8 against Alabama. No one in the SEC is as vertically challenged as High Point, which started 6-11 center Cruz Daniels to avoid having a lineup of five guys 6-5 or shorter.
Daniels averages 3.8 points and 4.9 rebounds. In other words, Speights was free to do whatever he wanted, and he capitalized by hitting 10 of his 14 shots while playing a career-best 31 minutes – six more than his previous high – as Florida (13-2) outlasted High Point 88-70.
The Gators have a gaudy record, but they have not faced a ranked team this year.
"Are we prepared for everything we're going to face? No," UF coach Billy Donovan said. "But I don't think that playing five top-20 teams gets you ready for that. There are certain things you experience in a non-conference schedule and certain things you experience in a conference schedule. Our guys have some growing to do playing against a high-level competition."
Speights, 6-10, dominated the lower-level players he faced Wednesday.
He had three dunks, four lay-ups, a 17-foot face-up shot, a back-to-the basket power move and a pull-up, but he impressed Donovan the most by beating everyone down the floor for his first two slams.
"When he gets tired, everything shuts down for him," Donovan said. "He doesn't play defense. He doesn't block out. He doesn't run. Everyone in the building knows when Marreese Speights is tired. He did a much better job tonight. I'm hopeful he can go through the experience he just went through and realize the whole key to his game is conditioning."
High Point (6-6), whose victims included Warren Wilson, Johnson & Wales and Anderson, hung around for 28 minutes. The Panthers were picked to win the Big South Conference by the league's media, and they showed their tenacity by rallying from a 50-31 late-first-half deficit to pull within 61-54 on Earnest Bridges' 3-point play with 12:10 left.
The Gators responded with a 14-4 spurt to put the game away, including back-to-back baskets from Speights. With his confidence rising, he almost hit a nifty turnaround banker from a bad angle on his final shot, but the ball rolled off the rim.
"I'm just working hard in practice," he said. "I'm trying to be the best I can be to help the team win. I can handle 31 minutes. That's why I've been pushing so hard in practice."
Forward Arizona Reid led the Panthers with 22 points, two under his season average, and he hoisted 20 shots to get them.
Freshman Nick Calathes had 15 points and six assists for Florida. Sophomore Jonathan Mitchell, who scored 25 points in UF's first 12 games, continued his recent torrid streak with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting. He has 32 points in his last three games and is 13 of 14 from the floor in that span.
Still, he wanted to talk about Speights.
"We are going to need him out there on the floor for us in the SEC," Mitchell said. "When he comes with the right mindset, he can be one of the best big men in the country."
The Gators' physical advantage saved them on this night because they were too inconsistent to hammer High Point, which sank 9 of 21 treys to stay within striking distance. The Panthers converted six 3-point plays among their first eight baskets of the second half.
Garbage time came late, but Florida, which never trailed, led by at least 14 for the final eight minutes and extended the advantage to 88-65.
"I'd practiced them hard, and that may be some of it, but we just did not have the energy we need to play with," Donovan said. "We looked fatigued at times."
Sophomore center Marreese Speights set career highs for points (24) and rebounds (15) against High Point in the Gators' final non-conference game on Wednesday night at the O'Connell Center, but it may not mean much when they open league play on Jan. 8 against Alabama. No one in the SEC is as vertically challenged as High Point, which started 6-11 center Cruz Daniels to avoid having a lineup of five guys 6-5 or shorter.
Daniels averages 3.8 points and 4.9 rebounds. In other words, Speights was free to do whatever he wanted, and he capitalized by hitting 10 of his 14 shots while playing a career-best 31 minutes – six more than his previous high – as Florida (13-2) outlasted High Point 88-70.
The Gators have a gaudy record, but they have not faced a ranked team this year.
"Are we prepared for everything we're going to face? No," UF coach Billy Donovan said. "But I don't think that playing five top-20 teams gets you ready for that. There are certain things you experience in a non-conference schedule and certain things you experience in a conference schedule. Our guys have some growing to do playing against a high-level competition."
Speights, 6-10, dominated the lower-level players he faced Wednesday.
He had three dunks, four lay-ups, a 17-foot face-up shot, a back-to-the basket power move and a pull-up, but he impressed Donovan the most by beating everyone down the floor for his first two slams.
"When he gets tired, everything shuts down for him," Donovan said. "He doesn't play defense. He doesn't block out. He doesn't run. Everyone in the building knows when Marreese Speights is tired. He did a much better job tonight. I'm hopeful he can go through the experience he just went through and realize the whole key to his game is conditioning."
High Point (6-6), whose victims included Warren Wilson, Johnson & Wales and Anderson, hung around for 28 minutes. The Panthers were picked to win the Big South Conference by the league's media, and they showed their tenacity by rallying from a 50-31 late-first-half deficit to pull within 61-54 on Earnest Bridges' 3-point play with 12:10 left.
The Gators responded with a 14-4 spurt to put the game away, including back-to-back baskets from Speights. With his confidence rising, he almost hit a nifty turnaround banker from a bad angle on his final shot, but the ball rolled off the rim.
"I'm just working hard in practice," he said. "I'm trying to be the best I can be to help the team win. I can handle 31 minutes. That's why I've been pushing so hard in practice."
Forward Arizona Reid led the Panthers with 22 points, two under his season average, and he hoisted 20 shots to get them.
Freshman Nick Calathes had 15 points and six assists for Florida. Sophomore Jonathan Mitchell, who scored 25 points in UF's first 12 games, continued his recent torrid streak with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting. He has 32 points in his last three games and is 13 of 14 from the floor in that span.
Still, he wanted to talk about Speights.
"We are going to need him out there on the floor for us in the SEC," Mitchell said. "When he comes with the right mindset, he can be one of the best big men in the country."
The Gators' physical advantage saved them on this night because they were too inconsistent to hammer High Point, which sank 9 of 21 treys to stay within striking distance. The Panthers converted six 3-point plays among their first eight baskets of the second half.
Garbage time came late, but Florida, which never trailed, led by at least 14 for the final eight minutes and extended the advantage to 88-65.
"I'd practiced them hard, and that may be some of it, but we just did not have the energy we need to play with," Donovan said. "We looked fatigued at times."