Tennessee’s Torrent Of Threes Washes Gators Into NIT

This article originally appeared here.

Well, to be fair, the University of Florida men’s basketball team could pull a miracle run through the SEC tournament and get an automatic bid to the NCAA tourney. But other than that, today’s 79-75 loss at home to the Tennessee Volunteers guaranteed a return trip to the dreaded NIT. On a sarcastic note, you have to think UF would be the favorite in the NIT due to the experience gained in last year’s run through the junior tournament.

This was the first loss at home on the season, and the game was dominated by Tennessee. The Vols scored with ease on Florida’s set-play defenses and capitalized on most Florida turnovers by burying a three-pointer. In both the first and second half, the Gators rallied back from a 16-point deficit, only to see the Vols once again stretch the lead. The end of the game was surprisingly close, and the lead was cut to 3 with 10 seconds left. Tennessee pulled out the victory by great free throw shooting and great defense in the waning seconds. Freshman G Erving Walker (OPOTB) had a 3 blocked with 37 seconds left, and Sophomore G Nick Calathes ran into an orange wall on a drive to the basket with 17 seconds left.

I like Erving Walker. I even named him official player of the blog. But lately Erving has been too active in the last minute of tight games. I know it is mainly due to Erving's free-throw abilities, but from what I have seen, Nick Calathes needs to have the ball in pressure situations. I am also not sure if Billy Donovan is calling for Walker to attempt the clutch shots, or if Walker is just feeling the urge for greatness. Billy Donovan, the dean of SEC coaches, should have a play in his book to get Calathes isolated for late game heroics.

Senior G Walter Hodge and Erving Walker both played 25 minutes. However, Hodge had 4 points and Walker had 16 points. Erving had 8 three-point attempts, which tied a season-high, and he converted on four of them. Nick Calathes had 20 points, but he only had two rebournds and no steals. Sophomore F Alex Tyus was 2-8 shooting and had 6 rebounds.

I thought Freshman C Kenny Kadji struggled in this game. He had one point and was 0-1 from the field, despite playing 14 minutes. He also had a few costly turnovers. Sophomore F Chandler Parsons played well and had 9 rebounds and was 3-5 from behind the arc.

As I mentioned, the Gators fell off the bubble. With a 101-ranked strength of schedule (SOS) and only 2 wins against RPI top-50 teams, the loss to UT was a golden opportunity squandered. Another late-season collapse with plentiful road worries. The Gators could also win the SEC tournament, or at least make the finals by knocking off an LSU or UT, but with this squad, I do not foresee any such scenario.

This Tuesday night the Gators travel to Starkville to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs at 9pm. The Bulldogs had a great start to conference play, but have cooled-off as of late. Both teams have lost 5 of the last 8. Miss St. is number one in 3-pointers made per game, and the Gators are second. Be sure to watch for Miss St. C Jarvis Varnado to block a lot of shots. He leads the SEC in blocks by a margin of 60, and is second in rebounds. I know I am going to chuckle when he blocks an Erving Walker shot. I also believe the road worries will continue. Projection Miss St. 67 UF 63

Entertaining math fluke: UT shot 30-57 (or 52.6%) from the field. And they were 10-19 from behind the arc, also for 52.6%