Emotional year ends swiftly, dramatically
The end was sudden, yet none-too-surprising given the dramatic highs and lows of Florida’s season in men’s basketball.
The 2020-21 campaign will be defined by a near tragedy in December and a gut punch during March Madness, two moments posing alternative interpretations of coach Mike White’s sixth year at the helm.
Coming up just shy of the Sweet 16 was an accomplishment for a Florida squad left to play without star Keyontae Johnson following his harrowing collapse on the court Dec. 12 at Florida State. Failing to hold multiple double-digit leads during a 81-78 loss to 15th-seeded Oral Roberts was the latest disappointment for these Gators (15-10).
Sunday night’s defeat followed an all-too-familiar script.
UF committed 20 turnovers leading to 23 points.
“It destroyed us,” White said. “It’s been our biggest issue all year.”
Prone to undisciplined, costly fouls all season, the Gators repeatedly sent Oral Roberts to the free-throw line, where it finished 19-of-23 shooting.
The 42 combined points given to the Golden Eagles (18-10) off turnovers and fouls ultimately
cost UF the game.
“You’re not going to beat a team with those numbers,” All-SEC sophomore guard Tre Mann said. “That’s what happened.”
The struggles down the stretch coincided with White’s strategy to curtail the tempo of a fast-paced game in order to limit the exertion of his players and focus on stopping Oral Roberts’ offensive onslaught.
“He told us that we had to exert all our energy on the defensive end,” Mann said of White. “So he slowed us down a little bit and let us catch our breath.”
Looking to give high-energy forward Anthony Duruji a breather, White replaced him with Osayi Osifo, a more limited offensive player. With 3:11 remaining and trailing 76-75, Oral Roberts coach Paul Mills ordered his players to foul Osifo, a 50% freethrow shooter. He promptly missed the front end of a one-and-one situation.
“We knew that 15 was 6-for-12 from the freethrow line on the year,” Mills said. “So we are not getting stops and we’re not getting rebounds. We’re down one, so we need to give ourselves a chance here. We took a gamble, and it paid off.”
The Golden Eagles’ gamble corresponded with the Gators struggling to find their shooting range on a night then they still finished a scorching 58% from the field.
UF took a 67-56 lead on a layup by Noah Locke with 9:48 remaining but managed to hit just just three of 11 shots the rest of the night. This included four misses and no points from Mann, who scored the last of his team-high 19 points with 17:14 to go.
“I just missed shots,” he said.
Mann also had two of his team’s five turnovers during the game’s final 10 minutes. The struggles down the stretch for Mann well could mark his final moments donning his Gators’ No. 1 jersey.
Following a freshman season featuring a concussion and a crisis of confidence, the 20-year-old from Gainesville still considered leaving to play professionally. But the talented 6-foot-5 Mann returned to school and led the Gators in scoring and assists while finishing second in rebounding, setting the stage for him to again test the NBA Draft waters.
Mann was one of two McDonald’s All-Americans in the Gators’ 2019 recruiting class, joining wing Scottie Lewis. The 6-foot-6 Lewis has not elevated his game close to Mann’s level, but the 21-year-old sophomore also might consider leaving for the professional ranks.
Meanwhile, the future of Johnson remains uncertain. Named the SEC’s preseason Player of the Year, Johnson recovered from the Dec. 12 medical scare but was not cleared by doctors to play the rest of the season. Johnson has served as a mentor, scout and quasi-assistant coach from the sideline, including during the NCAA Tournament.
The Gators rallied around their teammate and hoped to carry him to the school’s first Sweet 16 since 2017.
“Very, very tough emotional season for these guys,” White said. “I really would have liked to have seen Keyontae and his teammates have a chance to celebrate and have an opportunity to go to the Sweet 16 in another week and see what happens from there.”
Since UF’s run to Elite Eight four years ago, White’s team has lost in the tournament’s second round in 2018, 2019 and now 2021. COVID-19 canceled the 2020 Big Dance.
The 43-year-old White earns around $3 million annually and is under contract through April 2025. He now enters another offseason with much of the fan base fuming and questioning the program’s long-term prospects.
The Gators expect to return four of their top six scorers — big man Colin Castleton, point guard Tyree Appleby, Locke and Duruji. The rest of UF’s lineup, including Osifo and Omar Payne, have major strides to make during the offseason.
Meanwhile, the 2021 recruiting class features just one signee, 6-foot-6 Kowacie Reeves of Macon, Ga., the nation’s 37th-ranked player according to 247Sports. Despite Reeves’ potential, UF’s overall class ranks last in the 14-team SEC. White has successfully mined the transfer market, and the portal should provide ample opportunity to fill some roster gaps.
But his program’s next step was far from White’s mind as midnight approached Sunday.
“That’s it for this year’s Gators,” he said. “Tough ending.”