Some observations following UF’s 56-49 win over Tennessee:
– After weeks of coming on strong, Florida received a lackluster effort from its bench in the SEC Tournament semifinal win. The Gators finished with just 5 bench points, all from freshman point guard Kasey Hill, who played selfishly during some second-half stretches (0 assists, 2 turnovers). Forward Dorian Finney-Smith, the SEC’s sixth man of the year, finished with no points in 22 minutes before fouling out and freshman forward Chris Walker was beaten badly on defense during some first-half stretches. Florida is going to need a better effort from its reserves in today’s SEC Tournament finals against Kentucky.
– Senior forward Will Yeguete provides stellar defense, but on the offensive end, needs to cut down on his drives to the basket that often lead nowhere. Yeguete had as many turnovers (2) as points (2) against the Vols. Yeguete is at his best when he doesn’t force his own offense, is moving in space and allows the game to come to him.
– Florida’s 7-13 assist-to-turnover ratio against Tennessee shows that the Vols had a sound gameplan to bottle up the Gators. But even Florida coach Billy Donovan acknowledged that senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin was trying to play the role of hero too much after scoring 13 of his 14 points in the first half against the Vols. Wilbekin can score, but also needs to play the role of distributor to keep the offense crisp and efficient. Wilbekin is averaging just 1.5 assists in its first two SEC Tournament games. By comparison, Kentucky freshman point guard Andrew Harrison is averaging 8.5 assists in the SEC Tournament.
