GAINESVILLE, Fla. – So, just to double-check, which team came into Tuesday’s night’s heavyweight, top-10 Southeastern Conference clash rated first nationally in defense?
Oh, and which was the No. 1 team in the country, again?
Why ask? Because eighth-ranked Florida smothered top-ranked Tennessee into 21-percent shooting, including just four of 29 from the 3-point line – that’s 13.8 percent – and held the unbeaten Volunteers nearly 27 points below their season average. When the smoke (and carnage) cleared, the Gators had obliterated the Vols 73-43 in front of a crazed sell-out crowd at Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center that not only witnessed just the third victory in program history over a No. 1-ranked opponent – and first at home – but the most lopsided rout of a team atop the Associated Press poll in 57 years.
That’s right. Since Lew Alcinder and UCLA beat Elvin Hayes and No. 1 Houston 101-69 in the 1968 NCAA semifinals. It was the third-largest margin of defeat for No. 1 since the AP poll began in 1948.
“I think we just brought the physicality tonight,” sophomore forward Alex Condon said. “They’re a very physical team and the refs let it go tonight. I think that was the key to the win.”
The game was never close, with the Gators (14-1, 1-1), who never trailed, jumping on their league rival for the first dozen points and never looking back. Fifth-year guard Alijah Martin led all scorers with 18 points and six rebounds, with Condon netting his second double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Backup point guard Denzel Aberdeen threw in a season-high 16 points, while center Rueben Chinyelu beasted his way to 15 rebounds and led a UF inside assault that outscored the body-banging Vols (14-1, 1-1) 40-14 in the paint and out-rebounded them 55-38, including 19-13 on the offensive end.
Few outside the program could have seen this role-reversal coming. But UF coach Todd Golden, ever the believer, sensed signs of a serious bounce-back from his team coming off Saturday’s disappointing, mostly defenseless performance in a 106-100 loss at No. 10 Kentucky in the SEC opener.
But a 30-point bludgeoning?
“We knew this was going to be a really challenging game for us, but we also believe we’re getting to that point where we expect to win these types of games,” Golden said after becoming the program’s second coach (alongside Billy Donovan, who did it twice) to beat a top-ranked team. “I know it’s hard to say when you host the No. 1 team in the country that you expect to win, but I think our program did going into this game tonight. We had good prep. I thought we had really good mentality, had a good shoot-around [Tuesday afternoon], and our guys, they were just ready for it. You can sense if guys are nervous or if they’re not preparing the right way, and I thought we were really locked in. I thought our performance showed that.”
On both ends. No, the Gators weren’t their rip-roaring offensive selves that began the game ranked No. 3 in offensive efficiency. Nor were they the team that saw its defensive digits plummet following the loose performance against the Wildcats. UF shot 39.7 percent against UT and dropped only six of 20 from the 3-point line (30 percent). But those numbers were better than the 34.9 and 24.3, respectively, the Vols had allowed in their first 14 games. Florida’s 73 points (with scoring leader Walter Clayton Jr. held to just seven) were the most against Tennessee this season and 14 better than the Vols’ 55.9 allowed per game.
But it was at the Florida defensive end that the game was turned on its head.
“I thought they were terrific,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said of the home squad.
The UF defense that showed up against UT looked nothing like that one that was sliced and diced three days earlier at Rupp Arena, where the Wildcats shot 58 percent, bombed in 14 from distance in a six-point defeat that left Golden’s Gators feeling like they let a tremendous opportunity slip away.
Take a wild guess what they focused on most in the run-up to this one.
“We were more intentional, more locked into the scout,” Martin said of the Florida defense. “I just saw something different in everyone’s eyes. We were going through [opposing] players’ tendencies and everybody seemed locked in. if we can do that every game, we’ll be great.”
They were, no question, great on defense this time. UT went more than seven minutes before making its first field goal. The Vols trailed 34-15 at the half after going 4-for-29 overall and missing all 14 of their 3s before intermission. SEC scoring leader Chaz Lanier, averaging 20.3 points per game, was held to just two points.
“At halftime, we talked about the defensive game plan and what we had to do better,” Aberdeen said.
Do better? Better than four field goals allowed?
“We basically said coming out in the second half that we let [North Carolina last month] come back into it a little bit, and we weren’t happy with our second half defensive performance against Kentucky,” Condon said. “So just ensuring that we kept the foot on the gas was a big emphasis for us.”
Less than four minutes out of the locker room, the Gators’ lead was 25. With six minutes to go, it was 36. When the final horn sounded, the Vols had just 12 field goals and their fewest points in the 10 seasons and 128 games with Barnes on their sidelines.
“We were dominant from start to finish,” Golden said.
When the final seconds ticked away, the O’Dome celebrated something that had never happened in the program’s history: a No. 1 takedown on the home floor.
“This was a great game for us, obviously. I’m incredibly proud of our players and our staff, because we prepared really well for this game, and I thought our guys did everything that we asked them to do, and then some. They were the reason why we got this result,” Golden said after the program improved to 3-17 all-time against top-ranked foes, with their first since beating Ohio State in the 2007 NCAA championship game. “But now our biggest thing is this can’t be the highlight of our season. It’s awesome in the moment, and we’re going to enjoy it tonight.”
Then it’s back to the gym to begin working toward Saturday’s road trip to Arkansas, just the third game of an 18-game SEC mine field that’s already featured two games against top-10 teams.
And one (as in No. 1) for the history books.
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu
