Twenty minutes into the Sweet 16, Florida basketball's performance didn't look amazing. The Gators were committing turnovers at a rate that even a baker couldn't keep up with, and Alex Condon had left the game with an ankle injury.
But Florida put it all together in the second half and eventually prevailed for an easy win over Maryland to advance the Gators to the Elite Eight.
These are the three key factors that enabled Florida to advance.
Depth Matters
The entire gambit for Maryland was their nickname, the Crab Five. Derik Queen scored 27 points, and the Terrapins had three other players score in double digits, but they literally had just one point scored from their bench.
Meanwhile, Florida withstood the loss of Alex Condon for a solid chunk of the game, along with Micah Handlogten getting in foul trouble, and was still able to hold the fort and never let Maryland create a gap on them.
Rebounding Matters
In the first half, Florida wasn't playing amazingly and had 13 turnovers. But another huge reason why they somehow went into halftime with a lead was due to rebounding.
Florida had 13 offensive rebounds in this game compared to seven from Maryland and finished overall with a 38-20 advantage on the boards.
Florida Didn't Panic
The UConn win in the Round of 32 was a good experience for Florida, and they were able to draw upon it in this matchup. In that matchup, the Gators went into halftime even but came out flat in the second half before staging a comeback.
This time around, the Gators came out of the locker room and fired, fixing the issues they were having. After 13 first-half turnovers, Florida had just two turnovers in the second half and quickly put any doubt the game had to bed.