After Keyontae Johnson collapsed and was later hospitalized for several days in critical condition, basketball became a minor issue for the Florida men’s basketball team. Johnson was the leader of the Gators, an All-SEC selection of the first team last season who was named pre-season SEC Player of the Year before this season.
If Florida fought on the court for the rest of the season, it would be understandable. And at first, the Gators did. They beat Vanderbilt and LSU, but were eliminated by Alabama, a mediocre team from Kentucky, and lost at Mississippi State in a period of four games.
His season has changed completely since the loss to the State of Mississippi, however. Mike White’s team won their fourth consecutive game on Saturday, going to West Virginia and beating No. 11 Mountaineers 85-80.
Suddenly, Florida is knocking on the top 25 door and could become the second best team in the league, behind Alabama.
“We are very, very excited about this,” White said at his post-game press conference. “It’s nice to know that I hope your guys will gain a little bit of confidence. We did it at home, now we did it on the road. We hope that this level of confidence will help to get our guys to accept the job at the same time more. this team can still be a very good team. “
It is that last feeling that was debated before the last few weeks. After all, Florida was an inconsistent team last season – even with Johnson, Kerry Blackshear Jr. (who graduated) and Andrew Nembhard (who was transferred to Gonzaga). Defeated losses to Alabama and Kentucky, the latest in Gainesville, raised questions. After the loss in Mississippi, the Gators were 6-4 overall and 3-3 in the league, with a game against fiery Tennessee to follow. And it got worse: Scottie Lewis had lost the previous two games due to the COVID-19 protocols and was out again, while Michigan transferee Colin Castleton would miss the Volunteers game due to an ankle injury.
Florida then left and defeated the Volunteers by 26. And the Gators have been a completely different team since that victory.
“People forget that these guys – we came back from Tallahassee and broke up. Completely done,” said White. “The guys went home and did nothing. Some of them did, I’m sure, some of these guys were at the gym. But we didn’t get together for 15 days. And it wasn’t a break when we’re still doing 5-on-0, Dry 0, watching movies with guys … some guys went home for 14, 15 days.
“We needed to heal ourselves mentally from the trauma these guys experienced. We needed these guys to get away from it. We came back on the 26th, and obviously we are a different team without the pre-season player of the conference of the year, the best player I have ever coached, a guy that I thought would end up having an All-American season. “
White took some time to find the right mix of people. Second-year point guard Tre Mann, a former McDonald’s All American who fought last season, emerged as a focal point of the attack. Tyree Appleby, a Louisiana Tech transfer who missed out last season, started the last seven games and gave a boost at both ends of the court and allowed the team to pick up the pace. Noah Locke rediscovered his outside shot. Lewis returned to health and was an X factor, averaging 10.9 points per game, while White placed Omar Payne in the starting lineup for the past four games.
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Scottie Lewis of Florida turns to the paint and makes an acrobatic bucket fall.
“These guys [are] playing more together without Keyontae. These guys [are] understanding that we have reformulated everything we are doing offensively, so it took time, and also, to get back into shape. Going back to the moves and taking a stance, “said White.” I think that when we came back, we were playing for Keyontae, we were playing with emotion as much as anything, we went back to earth a little bit, started to work. … We are obviously better than we were a few weeks ago. “
But the biggest development was Castleton establishing itself as one of the biggest impact transfers in the country. He averaged 2.3 points over two seasons in Michigan, then averaged 6.5 points in the first four games of this season. In the last nine games, Castleton has averaged 16.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.8 blocks. Against West Virginia, he finished with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks, helping the Gators defend against Derek Culver and the Mountaineers.
“We were just being soft in the first half, we didn’t play hard enough,” said Castleton after Saturday’s game. “[Culver] there’s a bunch of easy buckets that he shouldn’t have, so he kind of focused on that in the second half. I didn’t give him as many easy looks as we did in the first half. I did a lot of layups and really focused on that. Basically, being smooth. “
Florida answered some questions on Saturday. West Virginia is one of the most difficult teams in the country each year, and unlike most opponents in the way it breaks the glass and plays physically for 40 minutes. The Gators have been fighting in the defensive glass and can have problems against teams that attack the painting consistently. But despite the Mountaineers’ 16 offensive rebounds, Florida – mainly Castleton – came face to face with them in the painting and then made great moves at both ends at the end of the game.
What does it mean to move on? Florida should have been ranked in the top 25 in the AP last week and will likely be in the rankings this week, but the Gators now have a strong case to be considered the best team in the league behind Alabama. They have already defeated Tennessee and LSU in the league, although they will face these teams on the road in the coming weeks.
But regardless of what happens in Knoxville and Baton Rouge, White and Florida have repaired the ship in the past two weeks – culminating in Saturday’s victory at Morgantown.
“This is really huge, really big,” said Locke. “I think this is my first on the road since I got here. I mean, it’s definitely great. We just have to keep the pace.”