Florida basketball stomps Ohio in Tampa behind Kowacie Reeves’ 20 points
Florida took out a week of pent-up rage and frustration on the Ohio Bobcats Wednesday night as the Gators waltzed to a 34-point victory at the Amalie Arena in Tampa.
Of course, the last time Florida was on the court was over a week ago as it spent the better part of a 40-minute contest trailing by over 10 points to the now No. 3 ranked Connecticut Huskies. It was a tough test, but Florida has yet to come up big against a Quadrant 1 opponent and the frustration is mounting among the fans and team. A week to stew on that loss only seemed to fuel the Gators in the win over Ohio, but it might not be the bounce-back win Florida needed.
The Gators played a strong game against a lesser opponent, but this isn’t the first time this team has proven it can beat the teams it’s supposed to. Florida plays Oklahoma next week on neutral ground and that should paint a much clearer picture of where this team is at.
Here’s what we can learn from Florida’s 82-48 win over the Ohio Bobcats.
No trouble in Tampa
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Florida came in as the favorite against Ohio and got the job done easily in Tampa Wednesday night. This sort of rout is always unexpected, but the Gators have blown teams out by 40 and 48 already this season. In fact, Florida has only won games against Quadrant 4 teams and lost against Quadrant 1 opponents, so this was a nice Quadrant 3 test for them.
More importantly, Florida needed to bounce back after trailing UConn for most of 40 minutes, and this was just what the doctor ordered.
A massive run at the end of first half put this one out of reach
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The Gators put the game away early after going on a 17-0 run in the late stages of the first half. Ohio couldn’t buy a bucket and Florida’s mistakes never really came back to punish it.
[autotag]Kyle Lofton[/autotag] led all scorers in the first half with 12 points and assisted on three more scores. [autotag]Alex Fudge[/autotag] is getting more chances to show off his hustle now that he’s in the starting lineup, and Colin Castleton scored early and often forcing the defense to focus on him.
This is the Gators team that needs to be on the court against teams like UConn.
Castleton finding a new role
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
[autotag]Colin Castleton[/autotag] hasn’t been the star player he was for Florida through the first five games of the season lately, but he is finding a different role that’s helping the Gators out. He can still score when he wants to push the envelope, but the team is worse when it’s operating a one-dimensional offense through the big man.
It’s better for Castleton to draw some attention with early buckets and then draw the defense away from the team’s shooters, such as [autotag]Trey Bonham[/autotag], Kyle Lofton and Kowacie Reeves – all of which reached double figures tonight. Castleton’s defense is always strong and his passing is underrated. He doesn’t have to finish with 20 points to be a factor in the game, and that showed in this one.
Todd Golden also tried out a few looks with both Castleton and [autotag]Jason Jitoboh[/autotag] on the court at the same time, which could help down the road against bigger lineups. Working the kinks out now should help Castleton operate as more of a scorer with that lineup.
Kowacie Reeves goes for 20
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
[autotag]Kowacie Reeves[/autotag] led the Gators in scoring against Ohio and was particularly sharp from three-point range in the win. Since the benching drama that Todd Golden chalked up to his own forgetfulness, Reeves hasn’t let his head coach forget what he’s capable of on the floor. He’s scored double digits in every game since the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament except for the UConn matchup and reached a new season high against Ohio.
Tapping into Reeves’ potential might be the biggest key to success for Todd Golden in Year 1. Let the young man loose because he’s ready to take over Gainesville.
Ohio is not very good
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Winning is always fun and Todd Golden offered a few new floor compositions that could help the Gators maintain pressure against better opponents, but let’s cool the jets on any proclamations that the Gators are back. Ohio is far from an elite club, and success against lesser opponents has not meant success against the Quadrant 1 and 2 teams of the world for Florida this season.
The Oklahoma game on Tuesday will give us a much better idea of how this Florida team handles Tournament-caliber opponents that aren’t ranked No. 3 in the country.
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