For a decent stretch in Tallahassee on Tuesday night, it looked like whoever had picked the Gators to beat FSU by 9.5 points was going to be way off. The Seminoles, in a lot of ways, asked the questions that Iowa asked last March that Florida couldn’t answer.
But to Florida’s credit, they stayed steady, didn’t get sucked into FSU’s AAU antics, played lockdown defense, and eventually hit enough big shots to pull away to win 81-72 and move to 3-0 on the season.
Florida wins its 6th in a row over FSU
The word on the street before Tuesday was that FSU was an improved team, and not to be fooled by the fact that they were unranked. The first half proved that true: even though Florida held them to just 29 points, the Gators couldn't get into the lane and create anything down low.
Florida was forced to live beyond the arc in the first half, and 18 of their 31 first-half points came from three-pointers. To give an idea of the uphill sledding Florida faced, they were just 5-11 on two-point shots in the first half.
But FSU seemed way more interested in hitting emotes after every play, as if they were playing 2K rather than staying the course. The instant anything went right for FSU, one would think they had just won the national title. Emblematic of why it was difficult to take their act seriously was when Boogie Fland committed a foul on a breakaway. FSU coach Luke Loucks would have you convinced Fland should have had a Flagrant 2, but upon review, it turned out Fland barely touched FSU, and the ensuing spin-a-rama was all show. There were moments where FSU would hack Florida across the arm, and then try to convince the coaching staff for a review.
This woe-is-me mindset eventually caught up as Florida stayed the course and pulled away. Thomas Haugh had 21 points, Boogie Fland came back from an injury scare (which, of course, involved FSU players acting like they were clip farming in an AAU game) to score 14 points, and while Urban Klavzar was 1-7 from three, he was 7-7 from the free-throw line to finish with 10 points.
The biggest takeaway is that while Florida’s guards still have questions to answer as to how much they can actually penetrate and create in a game like this, the Gators as a whole didn’t shrink when going up against a team that was willing to be in their face all night long.
Florida is now 3-0, and their next game will be on Friday against Merrimack
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