Five takeaways from Florida’s win over Richmond in Orange Bowl Classic
If you like three-point shooting, the game on Saturday afternoon in Sunrise, Florida, was the game for you.
Florida beat Richmond in the Orange Bowl Classic, 87-76, in a game that saw 51 shots from beyond the arc.
Fortunately for the Gators, they were dominant enough inside to win the game.
Florida outrebounded Richmond 49-30 and outscored the Spiders 34-18 in the paint to pull away to make the Gators 6-3 on the season. Richmond is now 5-5, even though the Spiders shot 50% from three against the Gators.
So without further ado, here are the five major takeaways from the Orange and Blue’s win against the Richmond Spiders.
Let’s start defending the three
Florida has the bigs to handle the inside, so it’s up the other guys to get in the grills of these shooters. Richmond made 11-of-22 from beyond the arc and still lost by 11. But this is an issue that is not going away.
Florida made nine threes to counter Richmond and dominated inside. But this defense has to get better if Florida is going to make the tournament.
On the other hand, we have the bigs
Finally, Florida was able to play as a healthy team for the first time since the FSU game. Micah Handlogten made a difference with eight points and 10 rebounds. The goal for Todd Golden is to have two bigs on the floor as much as possible and he was able to do that Saturday night.
Of course, it helps when one of them is Tyreese Samuel
The guy is balling. In this game, he had 18 points and 14 rebounds and is quickly becoming one of the faves for Gator fans with his enthusiasm. Samuel is kind of a mix of the tough guys in UF’s past like Major Marker, Udonis Haslem and some of the other long athletic guys that have been a part of Florida’s best teams.
Don’t overreact here. I just like the way he is playing.
The Gators finished the first half strong
Florida was in a tight battle before Richmond had a slight run that cut the lead to six. But UF held the Spiders without a point in the final 3:07 of the first half. The Gators led 40-30 despite missing 12 of 17 three-point attempts. Strangely, the Gators outscored Richmond 18-6 in the paint.
So, maybe fewer deep jumpers guys? I mean, one that went in was a bank.
OK, well, never mind
Because the turning point in this one was when Will Richard went nuts and made three straight threes and that was pretty much it. Florida took too many threes for my liking and the three-point defense is lacking. But when you can offensive rebound like Florida, you will kind of let it fly more often.
And that was the motto of those great Billy Donovan teams, “Let it fly.”
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