By: Dan Shanks

Florida’s run at an NIT championship came to an end Tuesday night, as No. 2 seed
Penn State came to the O’Connell Center and knocked off the Gators 71-62.
Coming into this season, I hoped that the “Baby Gators” would be able to put
everything together and make an NCAA Tournament run. Looking back, those
expectations were probably a little bit unrealistic.

Yes, Florida didn’t lose any seniors and returned a great deal of experience from
last year’s team. But the Gators did lose Marreese Speights, who has put together a
pretty impressive rookie campaign with the 76ers (15.3 mpg, 7.8ppg, 3.7 rpg). Had
Speights returned, it definitely would’ve helped Florida on the inside, and we all
know that the Gators have been struggling to score and defend in the post.
I watched the game last night and still saw numerous examples that proved this team
has a lot of growing up to do. Perhaps the most troubling part of last night’s game
was Florida’s lack of urgency on the defensive end, especially in the first half. I
was stunned to see the Nittany Lions have countless wide-open 3-point attempts
because the Gators were slow to rotate in the 2-3 zone.

The defense was really a case of pick your poison, because when Florida went to a
man-to-man defense, Jamelle Cornley ate the Gators alive on the inside. He scored 23
points and pulled down 12 rebounds, and Florida simply could not defend the wide
body one-on-one.

I was excited to see the Gators play with some intensity down the stretch. After
looking very lethargic for most of the second half, Florida went on a 9-1 run that
featured a number of impressive hustle plays and cut Penn State’s lead to 61-59. But
the Gators seemed to run out of gas down the stretch as the Nittany Lions pulled
away.

I do have high hopes that Florida will be able to get over the NIT hump and make its
way into the Big Dance next year. At the midpoint of the season, I was concerned
that Nick Calathes might try his hand at the NBA draft, but I don’t think that he
will now, given the struggles he’s had down the stretch. The Gators are losing
senior Walter Hodge, but with the arrivals of incoming freshmen Kenny Boynton, Erik
Murphy and DeShawn Painter and Georgetown transfer Vernon Macklin, they should be
poised to contend for the SEC crown and make some noise during March Madness.

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