Gators clamp down on Vanderbilt in win
GAINESVILLE — For all his previous success as a defender, Florida transfer guard Brandon McKissic had never done this.
It had been awhile for the Gators, too. Behind McKissic’s in-your-face intensity, the Gators (12-6, 3-3 SEC) put down the clamps on the Commodores and all-conference guard Scotty Pippen Jr. to coast to a 61-42 win Saturday in the O’Connell Center.
“I was excited for this game ... to see how I match up,” McKissic said.
McKissic and foul trouble limited Pippen to a season-low 6 points — well below his league-leading average of 18.8 points — on 1-of-10 shooting.
After trailing 31-28 at halftime with Pippen playing just 5 minutes due to 2 quick fouls, Vanderbilt (10-8, 2-4) scored 14 second-half points as Florida held an opponent to its lowest point total since a 65-41 win at South Carolina in 2018.
The performance was a thing of beauty for McKissic and defensive-minded coach Mike White, who aimed to build this team around the ability to stop opponents.
After all, McKissic was the Summit Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year while fellow transfer guard Phlandrous Fleming earned the same distinction in the Big South at Charleston Southern. Boston College transfer CJ Felder arrived as a defensive stopper himself and would join Gators’ shot-blocking center Colin Castleton up front.
A shoulder injury sidelined Castleton, the team’s most impactful defensive player, the past two games, forcing his teammates to elevate their defensive intensity and acuity.
“The urgency has increased with these other guys,” White said. “Obviously it needed to increase without Colin back there to clean up mistakes.”
The Gators have room to improve.
Trailing by as many as 10 points, Vanderbilt scored 4 straight field goals to close the first half and get back in the game.
But Florida opened the second half on 12-0 run featuring several defensive stops and continued to apply the pressure to pick up the Gators’ third straight SEC win.
“It’s hard to replicate what Colin does,” backup center Jason Jitoboh said. “But it’s great to see us come together as a team.”
Jitoboh’s continued emergence has been imperative, given Castleton is sidelined indefinitely.
Against Vanderbilt, Jitoboh played a career-high 27 minutes and grabbed a career-best 10 rebounds while scoring 8 points.
“I feel good out there,” Jitoboh said. “It just shows the work I’m doing.”
The 6-foot-11, 285-pound Jitoboh said he is down from a high of 336 pounds. To shed 51 pounds has required dietary changes, extra conditioning and newfound discipline.
“I’m proud of him,” White said.
The Gators thus far have made a demanding stretch look easy.
But Florida will hit the road play its third game in six days, Monday at Ole Miss — a makeup game from a Dec. 29 postponement because of COVID-19. Two days later, the Gators visit nationally ranked Tennessee.
“It’s going to be very tough,” Jitoboh said. “But we got to handle it like professionals, do what we got to do.”
Florida showed what it can do by shutting down Vanderbilt, now a loser of eight straight in the series.
McKissic built his reputation on defense and expects the Gators will continue to do the same.
“We’re getting our identity back,” he said. “With that comes a grit and a swagger.”