When Alex Murphy dunks on an opponent it’s a good day.
When Florida played against Arkansas inside of the O’Connell Center, the Gators were losing 17-14 and the game was in the middle of a media timeout. Right after the timeout ended there was 10:45 remaining in the first half and Arkansas came aggressive with their full court defense, and the Gators countered.
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The full court pressure applied by Arkansas didn’t stand a chance. So after the Gators sophomore point guard, Kasey Hill, one of the most intelligent point guards in the conference, got the basketball at center court, he needed a less than a dribble to see his personnel on the wings.
Hill then took his one dribble over midcourt, knowing he was already a step ahead of his defender, quickly realized it was a three on one fast break, and then threw the basketball to Alex Murphy who was streaking down the right sideline.
Only a dribble was needed as Murphy reached back, launched, and slammed over his defender. The basket only counted for two points, but it was the much-needed momentum boost the Gators needed for their crowd to get into the game against one of the better teams in the conference.
For the Gators, they too are one of the better teams in the conference. Last season they made it to the Final Four, and after losing a lot of talent, people wanted to see if they could sustain their level of success.
The Gators head coach Billy Donovan never looked worried or nervous about the situation his team was in because he knows how great his team can become.
It’s also because he’s the best coach within the conference, and in an era of Hall of Game NCAA basketball coaches, Donovan is right on par with the veterans, and great coaches, such as Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams and Rick Pitino.
A lot of people didn’t know how the Gators would respond early in the season after suffering bad losses to great quality teams who are most likely getting into the 2015 NCAA tournament.
To illustrate, the Gators lost on the road inside of Allen Fieldhouse, 71-65, to No. 9 Kansas in a crushing defeat. The Gators led most of the second half and missed a chance to leave Lawrence with another quality win.
As for the in conference losses against LSU, Georgia, and Ole Miss, those are the losses that the Gators will have to take on the chin. Each one of these teams beat them fairly and their should be no excuses.
Moreover, let’s also keep in mind that the SEC is a much better league than most of the country knows about and there are nine teams ranked in the top 70 in RPI. Let’s also remember the fact that 68 teams will get into the 2015 NCAA tournament, so as Katniss Everdeen likes to say, the odds are in their favor.
The Gators are playing as desperate as a Gator in the swamp, fighting over territory. They have no quit, and in the SEC, they show the heart of a competitive team. Their team has started to take the fighting spirit of their coach, and now they are starting to play better.
For example, one night it’s Dorian Finney-Smith coming up with a huge bucket against Alabama on the road to seal the victory.
In a game where he wasn’t getting his routine double-digit scoring numbers. Finney-Smith only scored two points, but he also had five rebounds, two assists, two steals, and three blocks to go along with it. Talk about heart.
Instead of looking like a horror movie where the Gators let their bad losses ruin their season, their latest tale looks like it’s now an action flick, filled with drama, suspense, and surprise.
After getting an awesome finish to a game where their defense was playing as stingy as it did in last year’s final four, it looked like Florida understood that their game against Arkansas was an unofficial NCAA tournament game.
The way that Florida played against Arkansas, forcing 16 turnovers, getting seven steals, blocking three shots, while only allowing Arkansas to have two players with double figure scoring games, and only allowing the entire team to shoot seven free throws, the Gators looked like they were too much defensively.
Florida might have gotten a huge break during the last play of the game which sent Michael Frazier II to the free throw line for two shots on a phantom foul call, but then again, there’s no such thing as luck. Everything happens for a reason.
However, now Florida can move forward and see that they’re only three games behind No. 1 Kentucky, and two games behind Texas A&M to get to the top of the SEC leaderboard.
In this conference where at least six or more teams could make the 2015 NCAA tournament, at the end of the season the Gators might find themselves in the thick of it.
Again, it’s a good day when Alex Murphy gets a dunk.
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