The Good, The Bad, The Ugly from Gators loss to ORU
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A wild season filled with adversity ended unceremoniously as the Gators were bounced from the NCAA Tournament by 15 seed Oral Roberts. The Golden Eagles become just the second 15 seed to reach the Sweet Sixteen in NCAA Tournament history.
The Good: Tre Mann
The sophomore guard has carried Florida down the stretch and he was great again on Sunday. Mann had a team-high 19 points on 8-16 shooting. Mann was tremendous in the first half scoring 11 points on 5-8 shooting and dished out three assists.
Unfortunately for Florida, none of Mann's points came in the final 17 minutes of the game and his miss from 25-feet to tie at the end of the game will likely be his last shot in orange and blue. Mann was good. He carried the Gators to this point, but he and Florida just couldn't finish the game.
"He's matured from year one to year two as much as any guys I've coached," Mike White said after the game. "He's going to be a really successful player for a long time. He finished the year really strong. I wish he had an opportunity to keep playing."
The Bad: Another early exit
Since an Elite Eight run in 2017 the Florida Gators have been eliminated in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament (No. 3-seed Texas Tech in 2018; No. 2 Michigan in 2019). That is the second-longest streak in school history.
The Elite Eight run in 2017 came in White's second season but Florida hasn't lived up to the program expectations since then. This year is hard to judge. Florida had to deal with a truly devastating situation early on with Keyontae Johnson collapsing on the floor in Tallahassee. So, credit to the players and coaches for figuring things out on the fly but at the end of the day this type of loss and elimination is starting to feel familiar.
The Ugly: Turnovers
Turnovers have plagued the Gators the entire season and once again made a huge difference in the game. Florida committed a season-high 20 turnovers in the game, which hurt them in a number of ways. The Gators shot it well (55% from the field) but the turnovers prevented them from getting shots at the rim and spotted ORU 23 points. Florida came into the game averaging 15 turnovers a contest, and in a three-point game you have to wonder how easily the outcome could have been different if Florida just protected the basketball.