By Ken Cross
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Building a basketball fortress always starts with using the strength of the metaphorical bricks that are in place to win, not only a game, but an in-conference regular season title, the subsequent tournament, or a national championship.
In Florida’s 73-43 sequestering of top-ranked Tennessee, Coach Todd Golden and his staff set the foundation where the strength and stability of this team can show in any moment. That is a positive norm that has been prevalent over Golden’s coaching career.
The beginning of Tuesday night’s game was a prelude exuded immediately to No. 1 Tennessee, the final team in college basketball to suffer defeat.
In the first five minutes, the Gators’ defense set the tone for the evening as Will Richard once again showed as one of those metaphorical bricks when he hit the ground on two steals and moved the ball in transition where those combustive steals equated to a slam for Alex Condon and a layup for Alijah Martin.
The relentlessness and the aggression of Florida’s defense led them to a 12-0 lead with 13:42 remaining and nine of those 12 points were in transition.
“Now at this point in his career, he’s become a much better defender,” said Golden of Richard’s impact. “He’s a really, really good defender. Someone you can put on a shooter and he has the mental toughness to stick with them.”
Richard’s primary defensive assignment was Tennessee leading scorer Chaz Lanier, who is one of the top shooters in the college game. Richard never allowed Lanier get comfortable and develop easy catches where he could find his shooting motion and develop his rhythm.
Lanier finished 3-of-16 from the floor and 1-of-9 from three as he was defended incessantly in his 30 minutes.
“He did miss some early that were decent looks, but I thought we just did a great job of staying in his hip pocket, not letting them get any super-clean looks to where he got comfortable,” explained Golden. “Our goal was to try to make him operate in the mid-range and make him make tough twos over us and he made a couple of those.”
Florida’s final defensive output was beyond phenomenal against the Volunteers, who are known for their defense, but have the needed weaponry on offense to score and control a game.
The Gators held the Vols to 21.4 percent from the field as Tennessee shot only 21.4 percent and made just 4-of-29 triples. The Volunteers made 15 free throws and just 12 field goals on the evening.
An Offensive Scope: Martin scored a team-high 18 points and his aggression and the playmaking ability of Denzel Aberdeen were two huge keys with Condon’s consistency inside.
It was a tough shooting night for leading scorer Walter Clayton, Jr. as he was hit with two fouls in the first five minutes. He finished with seven points, but his teammates picked up on the perimeter.
Aberdeen cited the Gators’ post play and how they were able to find him for his shots and drives. He finished with 16 points where his combination of playmaking ability and shooting were on display.
Condon was influential inside with 12 points and 12 rebounds while Rueben Chinyelu posted 15 boards as his athleticism and physicality were a tough combination in the paint.
“Credit to the bigs again because they got offensive rebounds and that led to closeouts,” said Aberdeen. “I just read what the defense was giving me, attacked the rim off two feet, and was strong.”