(Photo credit: Florida Gators)
Last month, Todd Golden’s Florida Gators went toe-to-toe with Nate Oats’ Alabama Crimson Tide for 45 minutes. The game was there for the taking, but Alabama just made more plays at the end of the game. Thus, the Crimson Tide prevailed in overtime.
In the rematch, Florida didn’t let it come down to that. And unlike many games throughout the course of the season, this time, when Florida had built up a big lead, they didn’t let up.
Florida got 19 points from Tyrese Samuel and Zyon Pullin apiece, Will Richard added 23 and Zyon Pullin chipped in 22 as the Gators demolished 16th-ranked Alabama, 105-87. The win all but knocks Alabama out of contention for an SEC Championship, and more importantly, bolsters the Gators’ resume that much more.
The Florida Gators now have three wins over teams ranked in the AP Top 20: Kentucky, Auburn, and Alabama. Perhaps even more impressively, those three teams are also ranked in the top 20 of the NCAA NET rankings, which is what the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee uses when seeding teams. Thus, the Gators have four Quad I wins, and three particularly impressive ones.
Much like the last time a team from the state of Alabama came to Gainesville, Florida left little doubt about the game’s outcome from the onset.
After building an early 18-12 lead, Alabama seemed to settle into the game, even taking the lead with a 7-0 run. But it didn’t last long. Alex Condon gave Florida a lead they would not relinquish with a midrange jumper with 5:51 to go in the first half, and from there, the Gators opened the floodgates.
Over the game’s final 26 minutes, Florida amassed 84 total points, including three threes from Will Richard and a wide array of poster dunks from various Gators. It didn’t seem to matter what Alabama did defensively, as the Gators either worked the ball around until they got a clean look, fed Samuel or Condon in the post and let them score in the paint, cleaned up their own misses for second-chance points, or got to the free throw line and scored from there.
That latter method of scoring, with the clock stopped, has a lot to do with how the Gators turned in their best offensive performance of the year. Yes, Florida also hit triple figures in wins over Michigan and Georgia, but the Gators needed overtime to do it in those cases. On the other hand, Florida shot a staggering 46 free throws– the most against an SEC team this century– and made 40 of them, a notable improvement from their early season struggles.
In that sense– and in many others– it was a perfect Senior Night, sending off Samuel, Pullin, and the rest of the seniors with a win in their final game at the O’Dome.
There’s more work to be done, of course. The NCAA Tournament field will be announced next Sunday, and while the Florida Gators know they’ll hear their name called, they want to do more than just show up. They want to hang around for a little while.
If they play like they did against Alabama, they very well might.
