There may have been better possessions on the season. Please share yours. There were certainly more consequential possessions. This one, however, is worth finding on the DVR and checking out. At SC, down 11 with 14:50 remaining in the 2nd, the Gator boys showed what Gator boy hoops was all about. To summarize: Clayton passes to Haugh - Condon - Martin at the top of the key. Martin drives and misses. The ball gets tipped out & Haugh alpha dogs the rebound. Passes to Condon - Martin for 3 and misses. Richard skies for the rebound and passes to Martin - Haugh - Clayton - Condon - Martin who drives again and misses - Condon rebound & misses the putback. Gets his own rebound & smothered by three SC defenders - rockets a pass out to Haugh, who cleverly ricochetes the ball to Clayton at the arc, who side steps the close out and drains a three. The ball touched sixteen players and the Gators got four offensive rebounds with five shots on the possession. It wasn't characteristic of Martin to miss three consecutive shots, but the tenacity was emblematic of this year's team. Edit: Here it is.
Yeah, that was my thought. It had to be frustrating/demoralizing to teams when the Gators would show such effort/tenacity, and skill.
I watched it until the end. I remember when the game was live thinking we didn't want to be the first team to lose a conference game to them. The thing is they were not a terrible team but the SEC was so good the record made them look like one.
Yep. People think, "Aah, the Gamecocks were terrible, no way that game should have been close." They overlook the fact that it was a road game, and that SCe beat Clemson, the 2nd-place team in the ACC and 5-seed in the NCAAT. The Gators fell into the trap of thinking the game would be a cakewalk, but SEC road games are always iffy. Anyhow... I was on my way to Portugal when we faced Bama in the 2nd game of the SECT. I got to watch the first half at an airport bar in Philadelphia, and only got around to watching my recording of 2nd half last night. Wow. There were a few plays in that half that I would call contenders for Play of the Season. Just wow. Every Gator played outstanding ball.
Honestly, it was games like this, or even the UGA away game that caused me - when I saw how far behind we were late vs TT - to think “OK guys - just need a spurt here and you’re back in it.” Others that haven’t followed how our team won and only noted W or L might have been surprised by our resilience. I wasn’t. Now, I will say that to come from down late multiple times on the biggest stage is a wholly different thing than vs USCe but as I said, the pattern was there.
It seems I saw almost the same type of trip a couple of dozen times this year. Thanks for posting! I've got Gator BB withdrawals!
Ha. I took my BIL to Senior night this year and he is a huge MLB and Miami Hurricanes fan. He was really into the game because he is so competitive and loves sports. He has always sorta rooted for the Gators, even being a UM fan. Anyway, he was moaning and yelling about the calls, or, our guy didn't do this or that--like guard that one guy on their team what was on fire, or, we chucked up a "wild" 3. I kept telling him to calm down. this is Gator BB. Then we won going away. He got to see the National Champions because of me so I get to hold that over his head forever. Oh yeah, we've been best friends since 8th grade too. 53 years. He claims to have sex with my sister, but I refuse to believe that. I don't know why I'm putting this in print. Uncharacteristic. Go GATORS!
I will throw my vote to the Haugh block at the 3 pt line and then the gymnastics move to get the and one seconds later
Fast forward several weeks, and I think Haugh takes that open shot. His confidence and play really grew down the stretch.
In case anyone worried about me in Portugal, I will say only this. Portugal drinks more wine per capita than any other country, and I felt obliged to do my best to fit in.
