By MARK LONG
Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — After watching countless hours of video on Florida forward Devin Robinson, East Tennessee State coach Steve Forbes knew he would be a matchup problem.
Seeing the 6-foot-8 Robinson in person made it even more obvious.
"He's downright scary," Forbes said. "His length really affected us."
Robinson tied his career-high with 24 points, Kasey Hill added 14 and No. 4 seed Florida used a second-half surge to beat 13th-seeded East Tennessee State 80-65 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.
Robinson, an NBA prospect who had been relatively quiet of late, scored his most points in nearly two months. He made 10 of 17 shots and chipped in seven rebounds. The speedy Hill reached double figures for the fourth consecutive game. He also added six rebounds and five assists for his most complete game in a month.
Kevarrius Hayes, filling in for injured center John Egbunu, finished with seven points, seven rebounds and six steals. He broke the school record for steals in an NCAA Tournament game.
Florida (25-8) needed all those contributions, especially since coach Mike White got so little from leading scorer KeVaughn Allen and Southeastern Conference Sixth Man of the Year Canyon Barry. Allen and Barry scored seven points apiece and were 2 of 15 combined.
"That's kind of who we are," White said. "And it takes a special group to be able to be successful while that happens. KeVaughn's not hanging his head right now. KeVaughn is happy that we won. Devin would be the same way if KeVaughn was sitting here right now."
Allen and Barry will have a chance to bounce back Saturday when the Gators play fifth-seeded Virginia in the second round of the East Region.
Florida blew open a close game with a barrage of 3-pointers in the second half. Robinson hit consecutive 3s, and then Allen followed with a wide-open look from the top of the arc. Chris Chiozza added two more a few minutes later, and the rout was on.
It was a stark contrast from the first half in which the Gators couldn't find their range. They missed their first eight 3-point attempts and finished 1 of 10 from behind the arc in the opening 20 minutes.
"We lost control of the game," ETSU's Hanner Mosquera-Perea said. "They came out (and) played harder than we did. We didn't play our A-game in the second half so they came out and punched us in the mouth. We started making mistakes and we just kept doing that."
BIG PICTURE
ETSU: The Buccaneers had won nine of their last 10 and thought this would be their year to get their first NCAA Tournament win since 1992. Still, Forbes has the program on the right track even though it includes adding disgruntled transfers and guys from the junior college ranks.
Florida: The Gators had played a lot of "small ball" after Egbunu's season-ending knee injury, with White going with a lot of three- and four-guard lineups. But he went big Thursday by getting freshman Gorjok Gak some minutes. Gak helped the Gators maintain a post presence with Hayes on the bench, finishing with four points and a rebound.
HALFTIME CHAT
Leading by a point at halftime, White wasn't pleased with his team's performance and he let his guys know it.
"He just laid it out for us like, 'Hey, if you all want to go home, lay it down right now. If you all want to advance, these are things you need to do to be successful,'" Robinson said. "We listened to him, took that in, and came out with a big second half."
CROMER CROWS
ETSU's standout T.J. Cromer scored a team-high 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting, but the Gators were more pleased with how they defended Desonta Bradford. The guard finished with just four points on 2-of-7 shooting and missed all three 3-point attempts.
"Cromer gets all the headlines, deservedly so," White said. "Cromer is a terrific player. Bradford may be their most valuable player. And KeVaughn started on him and guarded him for a lot of the game."
UP NEXT
Florida plays fifth-seeded Virginia on Saturday, and the Gators surely will have another home-crowd advantage.
Showing posts with label ETSU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ETSU. Show all posts
Thursday, March 16, 2017
ETSU-Florida Preview
Stats, LLC
Florida senior point guard Kasey Hill had to wait through an unexpected losing season, a coaching change and a trip to the NIT to make it back to the NCAA Tournament.
His last trip to the Big Dance is finally here.
As the only player on the Gators’ roster still around from their Final Four appearance in 2014, Hill will play an especially important role for fourth-seeded Florida when it takes on No. 13 seed East Tennessee State in an East Region first-round game Thursday afternoon at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
“I’m just glad to be back in the tournament,” Hill said. “It means a lot. Now, we have to be really locked in and play our best basketball. Everybody does, because we’re going to need everybody to win.”
But it starts with Hill.
There is no question the Gators (24-8) function better offensively when Hill is running smoothly. Hill leads the team with 4.6 assists per game and is fourth in scoring at 9.8.
His effort on the other end of the court will be equally important against an ETSU (27-7) backcourt that is led by senior T.J. Cromer and junior Desonta Bradford.
The winner of Thursday’s game will play either Virginia or UNC Wilmington on Saturday.
Cromer is the main reason the Buccaneers are here for the first time since 2010. He became the first player since Davidson’s Stephen Curry in 2009 to score more than 40 points in a Southern Conference Tournament game when he went for 41 in a win over Samford in the semifinals.
Cromer, who leads the team with 19.1 points per game, poured in 23 points to help beat UNC Greensboro and earn an automatic bid to the tournament. Bradford is second on the team in scoring at 10.6 points per game.
“Really and truly, I didn’t know I had it going,” Cromer said after his huge semifinal.
The Gators surely noticed and have several options to throw at Cromer.
In addition to Hill, Florida’s backcourt features sophomore KeVaughn Allen (the team’s leading scorer at 13.9 points per game) and junior Chris Chiozza. The two pestering defenders have proven to be nuisances for a Gators defense that held opponents to an average of 66.6 points per game during the regular season.
Florida’s guards will need to play well to avoid an upset because the team’s frontcourt is missing starting center John Egbunu, who suffered a torn ACL during a win over Auburn on Feb. 14.
The Gators skidded to a 3-3 record and an at-large bid without him but will benefit from a Buccaneers rotation that lacks much size inside beyond 6-foot-8 Tevin Glass (team-leading 6.2 rebounds per game) and 6-foot-9 Hanner Mosquera-Perea.
“Our guys have withstood a long, grueling season, with only playing a few games at home because of our unique circumstances, and they’ve handled it well,” said Florida coach Mike White, whose team played its first 11 games away from home due to arena renovations but will be about two hours from campus during the first weekend of the tournament.
“They’re very deserving of this. We’re really excited to play in front of Gator fans in Orlando, but more importantly we have to get back to playing well.”
Winners of nine of their past 10 games, the Buccaneers are already playing about as well as any team in the country coming into the tournament.
They start four seniors and a junior and don’t sound the least bit intimidated by the task ahead of them.
“Our goal was not just to play meaningful games in March but to win them,” ETSU coach Steve Forbes said.
Florida senior point guard Kasey Hill had to wait through an unexpected losing season, a coaching change and a trip to the NIT to make it back to the NCAA Tournament.
His last trip to the Big Dance is finally here.
As the only player on the Gators’ roster still around from their Final Four appearance in 2014, Hill will play an especially important role for fourth-seeded Florida when it takes on No. 13 seed East Tennessee State in an East Region first-round game Thursday afternoon at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
“I’m just glad to be back in the tournament,” Hill said. “It means a lot. Now, we have to be really locked in and play our best basketball. Everybody does, because we’re going to need everybody to win.”
But it starts with Hill.
There is no question the Gators (24-8) function better offensively when Hill is running smoothly. Hill leads the team with 4.6 assists per game and is fourth in scoring at 9.8.
His effort on the other end of the court will be equally important against an ETSU (27-7) backcourt that is led by senior T.J. Cromer and junior Desonta Bradford.
The winner of Thursday’s game will play either Virginia or UNC Wilmington on Saturday.
Cromer is the main reason the Buccaneers are here for the first time since 2010. He became the first player since Davidson’s Stephen Curry in 2009 to score more than 40 points in a Southern Conference Tournament game when he went for 41 in a win over Samford in the semifinals.
Cromer, who leads the team with 19.1 points per game, poured in 23 points to help beat UNC Greensboro and earn an automatic bid to the tournament. Bradford is second on the team in scoring at 10.6 points per game.
“Really and truly, I didn’t know I had it going,” Cromer said after his huge semifinal.
The Gators surely noticed and have several options to throw at Cromer.
In addition to Hill, Florida’s backcourt features sophomore KeVaughn Allen (the team’s leading scorer at 13.9 points per game) and junior Chris Chiozza. The two pestering defenders have proven to be nuisances for a Gators defense that held opponents to an average of 66.6 points per game during the regular season.
Florida’s guards will need to play well to avoid an upset because the team’s frontcourt is missing starting center John Egbunu, who suffered a torn ACL during a win over Auburn on Feb. 14.
The Gators skidded to a 3-3 record and an at-large bid without him but will benefit from a Buccaneers rotation that lacks much size inside beyond 6-foot-8 Tevin Glass (team-leading 6.2 rebounds per game) and 6-foot-9 Hanner Mosquera-Perea.
“Our guys have withstood a long, grueling season, with only playing a few games at home because of our unique circumstances, and they’ve handled it well,” said Florida coach Mike White, whose team played its first 11 games away from home due to arena renovations but will be about two hours from campus during the first weekend of the tournament.
“They’re very deserving of this. We’re really excited to play in front of Gator fans in Orlando, but more importantly we have to get back to playing well.”
Winners of nine of their past 10 games, the Buccaneers are already playing about as well as any team in the country coming into the tournament.
They start four seniors and a junior and don’t sound the least bit intimidated by the task ahead of them.
“Our goal was not just to play meaningful games in March but to win them,” ETSU coach Steve Forbes said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)