GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Mike White saw it coming.
“I didn’t feel good coming into the game. Sometimes you’re wrong with that," said the Gators head coach. "It was the first shoot-around, as a staff, that we got really agitated with our focus level and effort, discipline.
"We had to stop shoot-around and address our guys and let them know what they were in for if we didn’t make a 180. That’s what happened."
Not much happened for the Gators in general against Missouri.
The Tigers, who came into the contest as one of the worst offensive teams in the SEC, scored 91 points on Florida by shooting 61.5 % from the field and 63.2% from three-point range.
“It’s the worst we’ve been in a month," said White about Florida's defensive performance against Mizzou." “Probably since I’ve been a head coach. If the game was still going on, they’d probably still be making 3s on us."
Meanwhile, Florida shot 38.5% from the floor and 43% from outside the arc.
"They beat us in every category," said White.
Yes, Florida has new faces this season. Yes, they are young. But how long can White and the Gators play the youth card?
"We don’t talk to our guys about that," explained White. "The refs don’t give you three extra points because we’re younger than the other team and say, ‘Hey, let’s start the game over because you guys weren’t prepared very well and we didn’t handle success very well getting off to a 2-0 start. Just got to grow up. That’s it.
"Missouri beat us because they were the better team that night, hands down. They played really well. They prepared well. I think Drew Smith’s got to be one of the more underrated guys in our league. He was fantastic against us. They play so hard, they defend at such a high level. Our freshmen are freshmen obviously and they’ve got to continue to grow. Our four vets – K.J. and our three sophomores – those guys got to play better as well. We’ve all got to be better than that, period. I don’t know who played a good game. I don’t think we had anyone that had a good game.”
This team also can't let the loss to the Tigers affect them moving forward, especially with a quick turn around.
"We’ve got to be more sharp, our focus has got to be better, our competitive spirit, the whole deal," said White. "We’ve got to go out there and want to swing for the fences. We didn’t give Missouri a game.”
" I hope that it’s an outlier," added White. "I hope it’s the last time we see that level of defense. Because we’re going to play against some offenses that are going to hit some hard, hard shots with us blanketed all over them, and those guys, we just allowed them open ones. And they may have made them anyway, and they’re very good, and they played really well."
Florida (10-5, 2-1) is set to host Ole Miss (9-6, 0-2) on Tuesday, hoping to bounce back quickly before facing a top-ten team in Auburn this upcoming weekend.
“Breein Tyree is just fantastic. What a career he’s had, on the ball, off the ball. He’s great in the open floor," said White. "They run great stuff for him. Kermit [Davis] and his staff, they run some intricate offensive stuff, really space the floor well. They counter what they’re doing really well, they keep you off balance, they keep your defense off balance and the focus level we talked about against these guys has, has to be on point or they’ll pick you apart."
Tyree leads the team with an average of 17.8 points per game, meanwhile the Rebels average 69.7 points per game while shooting 43.5% from the floor and 32.3% from three.
"Scouting them in transition I mean they have really two fast guards," said Locke. "That was one of the biggest things scouting them in transition. Help being in the gaps when they attack the rim. Pretty much just stopping them. Stopping them in transition. That’s their biggest thing, they score a lot in transition.
"I think he and Shuler represent one of the better open floor backcourts in our league for sure," added White. "Really good team speed and quickness. Kermit changes defenses a lot and has a, you know, has, it’s very productive for him and his program both at Ole Miss and at middle. It’s gonna be a high level SEC game. Hopefully we play well and have a shot.”
Florida basketball needs to rally. The SEC play has only just begun.
"We’re pretty determined to do better," said Locke. " It’s not like we haven’t been in this type of situation before where we didn’t have a good practice, didn’t have a good game and turn around from it. It’s not like we haven’t been in this position. It’s nothing that we haven’t dealt with before. Just responding in the right way and coming back determined to get better."
