Advertisement

Minneapolis notebook: Shooting star

ken davis

More notebooks: Atlanta | Oakland | Washington, D.C. | Minneapolis

Recommended Reading

While No. 2 seed Ohio State will have its hands full Sunday in Dayton against Georgetown, the school's athletic department has received a wake-up call from the NCAA. Athletic director Gene Smith is trying to use the recent report from the Committee on Infractions as a "teachable moment" for every coach and every sport in Columbus.

With the Gators advancing to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000, you'd think Florida would be in a state of happiness. But this is the season that puts some people on edge – win or lose. Columnist Mike Freeman of The Florida Times-Union wasn't ready for the phone call he received from Gators AD Jeremy Foley.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – More than once Saturday, Florida coach Billy Donovan questioned the shot selection of swingman Corey Brewer. The sophomore with the well-rounded game took 16 shots – almost one-third of his team's total in an 82-60 second-round stroll past Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

But what could Donovan say on a day when Brewer was just feeling it? Brewer finished 9-for-16 from the field and led the Gators with 23 points. His fifth and final three-pointer came with 3:11 left in the game. On the way to the other end of the floor, Brewer turned to Milwaukee's Boo Davis and flashed one of those Michael Jordan smiles.

It's the look that says, "Sorry, but I can't miss." And the Gators hope Brewer keeps smiling all the way to Minneapolis.

"There were a few [shots that made me cringe] – and they happened to go down," Donovan said. "There were a couple of bad ones, but you know what? There were some good ones he let go. And I just want to give those guys confidence. Sometimes they don't know what a good shot is and what a bad shot is. … The one thing you don't want to do is make them think, and take away their aggressiveness."

Brewer, who had to accept a new role as an offensive weapon this season, was still smiling in the locker room long after the game was over. He had been in a bit of a shooting slump and hadn't scored this many points since a 26-point effort against Vanderbilt on Feb. 15.

"Even when I missed, it felt like it was going in," Brewer said. "I knocked my first one down and it felt good. My guys kept looking for me and I kept getting wide open because my [big guys] were setting great screens."

Brewer played only seven minutes in the first half. He took a charge from Davis and fell hard to the floor with 11:20 remaining. Brewer, who had only eight points at that stage, spent the rest of the half on the bench, hearing little birdies and whistles in his head.

"I fell head first and hit my head, I guess," Brewer said. "Everything was going every which way. But everything finally came back. It was my second foul anyway and I could not have come back for the half. I was able to come out and have a great second half."

STOPPING THE PANTHERS

Davis (10 points) and Joah Tucker (nine), two seniors who lead Milwaukee in scoring, finished well below their 16.5 and 16.7 averages. Together, they hit 7 of 26 field-goal attempts.

That spelled trouble for the Panthers.

"You've got to give those guys a lot of credit," said Davis, who was 3-for-12 from the field. "They made me work hard on both ends, and I didn't get a lot of good looks. The confidence wasn't really there, so it was just a difficult night for me."

It was all part of Donovan's plan.

"Wisconsin-Milwaukee is an interesting team, watching them on film," Donovan said. "Because of their experience and their poise, they know how to rest during the course of a game. They know how to take a possession off when they need it. They know how to rest away from the ball and our guys don't know how to do that.

"My thing was that we needed to maintain a level of aggressiveness the whole entire game. You are not going to out-experience them, so to speak. I felt like we had to make Tucker and Davis guard, to make them uncomfortable. With Corey Brewer, we kept running him along the baseline and we kept running screens. That made Tucker work defensively. I just felt we had to run him around."

Another Milwaukee senior took advantage of the situation. Center Adrian Tigert finished with a career-high 27 points. He was 11-for-13 from the field.

"Obviously Boo and Joah are our main options," Tigert said. "Florida really keyed on them and that left me open. You could tell they weren't really keying on me, so I just put myself in position to score and my teammates found me."

HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE

Arizona junior guard Mustafa Shakur left his hometown of Philadelphia for the allure of playing for Lute Olson and his Arizona Wildcats in 2003 after a spectacular career at Friends Central High. Now Shakur, who honed his electric style of play in Philly, is back to face Villanova and some familiar faces on Sunday.

"I've been playing against those guys since I was 10 or 11 years old," Shakur said of the Villanova lineup, which features many players from the region. "Philly basketball is tough and gritty. I think of playground first. McGonigle Hall, Sonny Hill, that's where you make your name. I'm in my hometown. It's the NCAA tournament. It's the second round. It means a lot, but I can't get too caught up in that."

(Greg Abel contributed to this notebook.)