The No. 11/12 Florida Gators entered Saturday’s game against the Georgia Bulldogs hoping to prove that they could continue to be a dominant force in the Southeastern Conference even with their best defender out for the season with a broken foot. Instead of showcasing that confidence, Florida (22-7, 10-4 SEC) was upset and embarrassed by Georgia (13-15, 4-10 SEC) 76-62 at the Stegman Coliseum in Athens, GA.
UF started slow on both ends of the court, beginning the game by going 0-for-7 from three and trailing 21-11 with 7:48 left in the first half following a 9-3 run by UGA.
The Gators used a 12-5 scoring stretch to get within three of the Bulldogs with 2:49 left in the first half, but Georgia outscored Florida 10-4 over the final few minutes to take a nine-point lead at the break.
The Bulldogs extended their lead to 16 with 10 minutes left but the Gators answered with a 7-0 run to get within nine with 8:10 left in the game. A three-pointer by UF junior guard Kenny Boynton cut UGA’s lead to five points with 1:51 as part of a 9-2 Florida run, but Georgia outclassed their oppoennt down the stretch to earn a 14-point victory.
The Gators shot a paltry 21.7 percent (5-of-23) from downtown and hit just 22-of-60 shots from the field on Saturday. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, shot 52.9 percent from the floor and 35.0 percent from beyond the arc, earning 16 assists on 27 baskets compared to just eight on 22 for their opponents.
Florida outrebounded Georgia 33-28 (13-5 offensively) but turned the ball over 12 times compared to just 10 for their hosts.
Four Bulldogs scored in double figures on Saturday while only three Gators did the same. Freshman guard Bradley Beal led Florida with 19 points on 5-of-12 shooting but was 0-for-4 from downtown. UF junior G Kenny Boynton hit 3-of-7 attempts from three but, like senior point guard Erving Walker (14 points), was just 4-of-11 from the field.
Florida will look to end their season on a better note next week. UF travels to Vanderbilt on Tuesday before hosting No. 1 Kentucky on Sunday in Gainesville, FL.
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Perfect headline, sad but true. You know it is going to be a long day when you are down 2-0 before the game even starts….
I don’t get it. No excuse for that. Hard team to feel good about. Young and Murphy should be dominating teams like this. ( As should Boynton and Walker). Young has not even come close to the hype.
First football , now basketball . Just couldn’t hang on to being the top. Story of UF sports . Always been that way
Well we’re just not a great road team. Especially with Yeguete out, we’re just a pretty good team. Beal is the real deal, but Young still has a long way to go. As a center he may only be top five in the league which isn’t exactly loaded there. I think Walker has been exposed a bit this year and Boynton is left open only when we’re down by double digits. Good news is there are no away games in the tournament. Hopefully we’ll hit a good shooting streak and make a run, but the bad news is this team isn’t build to dominate anyone. The best they can hope is to grind it out.
If we don’t find some grit, we will lose to Vandy & Ky, then be one and done in both the SEC and NCAA tourneys.
NCAA Tourney!?!?!? Chant with me, N.I.T…N.I.T…N.I.T.
From Billy’s postgame comments, sad but seems true for all of our teams since the championships, no lack of talent, just lack of desire.
“I really am concerned if we will ever play with any passion again,” Donovan said. “I’m being totally honest here because if you can’t get excited to play on the road against a bordering state, getting a chance to go 11-3 in the league and do that, but you come out and you play like that?
“Sometimes to coach with these guys, I feel like I’m grabbing these guys by the back of their shirts and I’m pulling them up a hill all the time.”
We are like a lot of average teams…..can beat the world some days (Arkansas by 30) and other days just flat out suck.
we are horrid on the road….soooo I have minimal hope for getting out of the 2nd round of the ncaa`s….one game we look like a top tier team and the next we look like a disorganized bunch of scrubs who cant play defense worth a shite…..it starts on D…and lately we have been looking god awful
NCAA’S?!?! Chant with me, N.I.T…N.I.T…N.I.T.
G8ter27,
An average team doesn’t beat Arkansas by 30 in Bud Walton Arena. We’ve been anywhere from a good to a great team most of the season, as evidenced by our stay in the 5-15 range all year. Unfortunately, I fear the loss of Yeguete (not to mention Young’s injury and resulting struggles) could spell the end of that run. I look forward to seeing what Coach Donovan can do to ease the blow, though.
Regarding yesterday’s game, it was just one of those games where we struggled from 3, and we lost like we have nearly every time that’s occurred this season. And I think we still would have lost with Yeguette out there…it just wouldn’t have been by as much because of his defensive presence.
*Yeguete (second one in my post)…feel free to edit that and delete this in the moderation process.
We go the way of our 3’s. If they fall, we play better D. If the don’t, we slack off, we lose mo, and it gets worse. Vicious cycle, when you live or die by the 3. Where in the world is THE BODY???
This is what happens when you replace ALL of your assistant coaches. The players were not recruited by these coaches (except Billy) and they just don’t care. There is no relationship buy in. We trounced Arky because we have their last head coach on our staff and he knows their weaknesses
a little late here, but this game was absolutely pathetic. I don’t get why Billy hasn’t been able to sign talented big guys? Very confusing, especially with the success of Horford and Noah.
These guys are supposed to be talented. They are all top recruits. I have no complaints with Billies ability to bring talent. There is definitely a fire missing with these guys, especially Young. This team is good if he plays well. It hardly happens and it was unexpected to me. I thought he would have a HUGE year. Good thing BD is one of the best tourney coaches in the game….
I have to disagree with that. I think Young has lots of fire. He fought through injury and is still coming back into form. He has guards who don’t drive it inside to him. Walker seems to forget he is on the court half the time. He should be getting 10-20 points every game at least, but they don’t push the post. That is why we live and die by the 3. We don’t use the 3 as a weapon, we use it as a crutch…That is what happened yesterday. When the 3 isn’t falling, go inside to Young and Murphy. They didn’t and we got little in the paint.
Yeguete being out is just an excuse as well, while he plays a lot of minutes, he isn’t a starter, our defense was just atrocious, and these kids just seem to want to jack it up and not defend sometimes. If the 3 goes they focus on d, when it doesn’t they go crazy and scramble, no leadership at all.
Two great ponits IMO. We don’t get it inside and no leadership. That falls on Walker – our senior point guard. I’ve said for 2 years he is a liability and for some reason Donavan loves him. Yes he has a lot of heart, but makes stupid decisions and has no leadership ability at all.
Its frustrating to watch so much talent go to waste.
If Beal isn’t one and done (and I think I am one of the few that thinks he won’t be, based on his comments when he committed and his comments recently about how much he still can learn from Billy) he will be the team leader for as long as he stays. I think he is such a team player that he is already becoming the leader, but as a freshman he is deferring to the Seniors. I think it is safe to say that Young will be back which will be huge, as well as Murphy, since we didn’t get any big men yet. If he comes back, with the talent returning and the recruiting class coming in this will be a very good team next year with a great point guard coming in as well as Wilbekin having 2 yrs under his belt at this level. We will still be thin on the front line, but the talent will be there if we can avoid injury.
Unless Billy can get some top big men in the next recruiting class, if Beal does leave, the next 2 years are going to be very long years…
5 minutes in I knew it was going to be one of these games. Young looked so angry/frustrated all game.