Florida basketball pulled off a major upset against the Tennessee Vols last night who were ranked #2 in the country. They got a 20-point game from Colin Castleton and 14 from Kyle Lofton, but the Gators’ defense was the key to the game.
All night, Florida made it rocky for the Vols as they tried to score.
They totaled up seven blocks and four steals against a team that had a great assist/turnover ratio coming into this one.
The Vols rank 37th in the country in assist/turnover ratio with 1.34. In Exactech Arena last night, Tennessee only got up to seven assists, and the Gators turned them over ten times.
Being able to turn a team over more than they assist is always an impressive feat. But to do it against a team like Tennessee is on an entirely different level.
Coming into this matchup, Tennesse had a team field goal percentage of 44.65%, and a 3-point percentage of 33.87%.
Last night against the Gators they shot 27.9% from the field, and 20% from long range.
The Gators were swarming all night long and didn’t let Tennessee breathe at all. Nothing came easy throughout all 40 minutes, and the discomfort they caused threw Tennessee off all night.
An under-the-radar element of the defensive effort from Florida was how disciplined they were. The Gators only committed 11 fouls all game. Nobody for Florida had more than two fouls, and only three guys got to two.
This put a lot more pressure on Tennessee, as they couldn’t rely on whistles to get them free throws and into the bonus. The Vols came in averaging over 19 free throw attempts per game. They only got 12.
When you play defense as tight as the Gators did, and foul as little as they did, you’ll win a lot of basketball games. If the Gators can sustain that level of defense throughout the rest of the year, they’ll be in every game, and win a whole lot of them too.
Keep up with Florida basketball at Hail Florida Hail.