Coming into Saturday's showdown between Florida Basketball and Georgia, we anticipated a reasonably close contest where the Gators would pull away late. With Mike White in town, we figured there would be a little bit of extra juice for Georgia as White once again got juxtaposed with Todd Golden.
What instead happened was a complete beatdown so dominant that we would not be surprised if the Bulldogs wind up in a Sarah McLachlan commercial down the road.
Florida Basketball: Loser Leaves Town
Yesterday, we highlighted that White isn't necessarily a "bad" coach, but there is a well-established ceiling for how far he will get you as a program. He is in year 14 of his D1 coaching career, and he has made it past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament a grand total of once.
So, in case there was any doubt whether it was the right call to push White out of town to Athens and replace him with Golden, Saturday afternoon should be the catharsis for everyone who got flammed for suggesting Florida could do better than White.
Georgia looked lifeless, and Florida made them pay time and time again. The Bulldogs came into the game averaging 13 turnovers a game, which is already one of the worst rates in the country. They had 13 turnovers with time to spare in the first half alone.
The biggest thing for the Gators is that when they did force a steal, they didn't hesitate and pumped the ball up the court immediately. When Florida was forced to run a half-court offense, the size for Florida bullied Georgia down low.
Alijah Martin and Will Richard provided the scoring, but Walter Clayton looked locked in on defense with five steals on the afternoon. Even Thomas Haugh had a double-double off the bench.
Florida moves to 18-2 on the season and 5-2 in SEC play. Next up is a rematch with Tennessee.