2011 Xavier Musketeers Basketball: Xavier vs Florida

The Florida Gators are one very schizophrenic basketball team. Unfortunately for the Xavier Musketeers, Florida ’s best and most positive personality emerged on the final afternoon of 2010.

It ’s been some kind of rollercoaster ride for Coach Billy Donovan as he tries to not only return to the NCAA Tournament, but make Florida a Final Four contender once again. The sheen of back-to-back national championships has certainly worn off in Gainesville after two NIT seasons and then a first-round NCAA exit this past March against Brigham Young. Equipped with a veteran group this season, Donovan is intent on squeezing the most out of his talent, but the Gators have continued to display a nasty propensity to let down their guard precisely when they ’re rounding into form. A loss at Central Florida – just days after a win over Florida State – put a hitch in the Gators ’ git-along at the very beginning of December. Then, after a big win over Kansas State, an Elite Eight team last year, Florida then came home and stubbed its toe in a horrible loss to Jacksonville. Just when the Gators are flying high, they snooze in the cockpit and lose sight of the flight plan.

Heading into Cincinnati to face Xavier – a team that whipped Florida in Gainesville last season – the Gators faced the kind of challenge they typically haven ’t surmounted in recent years. When one then realized that Xavier and coach Chris Mack were working on a 30-game home-court winning streak, this Friday matinee became that much more daunting for Florida. Could the Gators display enough sustained focus and exhibit enough poise to survive the pressure-cooker of the Cintas Center, one of the toughest places to play in all of college basketball? Could a team that lost to Jacksonville access its best angels and not the worst demons of its nature?

Evidently so.

What really has to impress hoopheads about this Florida win, this streak-busting breakthrough which ended Xavier ’s home-court dominance, is that it was achieved with ferocious defense. Yes, the score says 71-67, but this was a game in which the final numbers were inflated by endgame basketball, that unique phase of competition in which one team racks up free throws and the other team is conceded easy two-point baskets as long as it doesn ’t take threes. Florida was happy to trade two points for two points in the final 82 seconds of this clash, when both teams scored eight points. This was a 63-59 game with 1:22 on the clock, a much truer indication of the extent to which the Gators shut down most of the X-men.

The only two Xavier players who showed up for this game were guard Tu Holloway and reserve center Kenny Frease. The inside-outside combo maxed out for coach Mack, hitting a combined 16 of 29 shots and scoring 45 points. Outside of Holloway and Frease, however, Xavier hit just 9 of 33 field goals, a rate worse than 30 percent. Florida really clamped down at the defensive end and held Xavier under 40 percent until a final minute filled with window-dressing baskets on the part of the Musketeers.

Sure, Florida received 18 points from Erving Walker and hit 6-of-13 3-pointers, but it was defense that carried the day for the Gators, who not only limited Xavier ’s shooting percentage but also allowed just 17 foul shots in a road game. That ’s an outstanding level of discipline from Donovan ’s determined roster.

Will Florida slip on the banana peel in the near future? Perhaps. Nevertheless, the good Gators – not their evil twin – showed up in Cincinnati and sent a 30-game winning streak crashing to a halt. X did mark the spot... the spot when Florida found a new level of fortitude.

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Fans

Xavier Musketeers vs Florida Gators Basketball Recap