We suggested in the prediction that this might get ugly. And it did, in a hurry. The Florida Gators – probably the best team in the country this season, NCAA tournament results be damned – did to the Gamecocks what they’ve done to every other team to show up in Gainesville this season – beat them up.
Team
As always, from KenPom.com
| Four Factors | USC | UF | NCAA | |
| eFG | 33.3 | 64.2 | 48.4 | |
| TO% | 27.9 | 19.7 | 20.5 | |
| Oreb% | 18.2 | 37.9 | 32.0 | |
| FTR | 20.0 | 30.2 | 35.6 | |
| Possessions | 61 | |||
There’s not much to say about the numbers, so I won’t say much. Florida dominated us in every area, with the possible exception that we avoided fouling them by and large (though with an FTR of 69.6 at the half, some of that was simply the Gators and the referees taking pity). Otherwise, the Gators came into the game better than us in basically every area, and outplayed us on the evening in basically every area.
Individual
I’m going to bounce these statistics down a few lines so they show up on the page (we recognize we need to improve our formatting on these things – consider it an off-season project):
South Carolina |
||||||||||
Name |
Min |
Poss% |
Pts |
2PM-A |
3PM-A |
FTM-A |
OR |
DR |
A |
TO |
Eric Smith |
35 |
18 |
5 |
1-5 |
1-3 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
Bruce Ellington |
34 |
31 |
7 |
1-5 |
1-4 |
2-2 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
7 |
Lakeem Jackson |
29 |
14 |
2 |
1-2 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
Michael Carrera |
22 |
30 |
13 |
6-9 |
0-0 |
1-3 |
2 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
Laimonas Chatkevicius |
10 |
22 |
1 |
0-3 |
0-0 |
1-2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Damien Leonard |
23 |
17 |
4 |
1-2 |
0-4 |
2-2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
RJ Slawson |
21 |
12 |
0 |
0-1 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Mindaugas Kacinas |
16 |
9 |
4 |
2-2 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Brenton Williams |
5 |
0 |
0-1 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
Brian Richardson |
3 |
0 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Shane Phillips |
1 |
0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Brian Steele |
1 |
0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
Team |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|||||||
TOTAL |
200 |
36 |
12-31 |
2-14 |
6-9 |
6 |
18 |
8 |
17 |
|
0.59 |
38.7% |
14.3% |
66.7% |
18.2% |
62.1% |
57.1% |
27.9% |
|||
Florida |
||||||||||
Name |
Min |
Poss% |
Pts |
2PM-A |
3PM-A |
FTM-A |
OR |
DR |
A |
TO |
Kenny Boynton |
32 |
23 |
15 |
2-5 |
3-6 |
2-2 |
0 |
3 |
7 |
0 |
Scottie Wilbekin |
30 |
18 |
8 |
2-4 |
1-1 |
1-2 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
Patric Young |
28 |
24 |
8 |
3-6 |
0-0 |
2-7 |
2 |
6 |
0 |
2 |
Mike Rosario |
25 |
30 |
15 |
4-6 |
2-5 |
1-1 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
Erik Murphy |
20 |
27 |
8 |
1-4 |
2-2 |
0-0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
Michael Frazier |
24 |
15 |
12 |
0-0 |
4-6 |
0-0 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
Will Yeguete |
22 |
20 |
3 |
1-2 |
0-0 |
1-4 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
Braxton Ogbueze |
5 |
0 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Jacob Kurtz |
4 |
2 |
1-1 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
DeVon Walker |
4 |
2 |
1-1 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Dillon Graham |
3 |
0 |
0-1 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Casey Prather |
3 |
2 |
1-1 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
|
Team |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|||||||
TOTAL |
200 |
75 |
16-32 |
12-21 |
7-16 |
11 |
27 |
18 |
12 |
|
1.23 |
50.0% |
57.1% |
43.8% |
37.9% |
81.8% |
64.3% |
19.7% |
|||
Only two things really jumped out to me about the individual performances of the teams:
1) Florida was incredibly balanced, with six players scoring between 8 and 15 points, and none of those guys using an overwhelming number of possessions (Rosario’s 30 percent is a little high, but overall, this Florida team was as balanced as we expected).
2) Thank goodness for Michael Carrera, otherwise this would’ve looked so much worse. I don’t care how many of them came in garbage time – they’re points on the board, and it was a good effort from him. Honestly, it wasn’t an effort issue with any of our guys – we simply weren’t able to match-up with a team that was far better than we are, and that was just about that.
Takeaways
It’s worth keeping this game in context. It’s one game, and it doesn’t change the fact we beat Arkansas soundly the other day, or that we have a good chance of bouncing back to beat Georgia on Saturday. A Florida team that beat both those Bulldogs and also Marquette by 33 in Gainesville earlier this season did about the same to the Gamecocks.
Some fans will see the wild swings between the outcomes of this game and the Arkansas game and wonder why we’re so inconsistent. We’re not – we’re the team we are, a team that’s good enough to go about and beat mediocre teams like Arkansas, but that isn’t going to be able to stay on the court with a group like Florida. If you tie your expectations to that reality, most of our season thus far should make a bit more sense.
There’s not much else to say about this one, so let’s move on. Georgia’s up next, and beating Georgia in anything is always fun.
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