Men's Basketball
Gators Brush Aside Upstart Buckeyes with Lopsided Win
By John Porentas

Joakim Noah
Photo by Jim Davidson

Florida forward Joakim Noah, sweat still dripping from every part of his body, stood at the side of the court and blew kisses to the crowd. The crowd responded with a deafening cheer for Noah. He and his Florida (11-2) teammates, had, after all, just totally demolished upstart Ohio State (10-2) in front a record crowd of 12,621 at the Stephen C. O'Connel Center on the campus of Florida. The final score of 86-60 represented not just a defeat for OSU, but a message that until somebody proves differently, Florida is still the bully of college basketball and teams like the Buckeyes are the kind of playground twerps that the bullies like to push around.

"At one point when we went on our run and they called timeout, we huddled up and I said 'Look at the look in their eyes,'" said Noah, "and they looked like they were so distraught, they looked lost out there. And that really gave us like even more, when you taste blood you've got to go for the kill and that's what we did, that's something we really wanted to do, go for the kill, go for the kill."

Noah and his teammates showed that killer instinct with 31-7 run early in the second half that turned a 40-40 tie into a 71-47 lead and removed any doubt whatsoever as to who was going to win the basketball game.

"I wish there was something that I could say that we did right today and Florida had everything to do with it," said OSU Head Coach Thad Matta.

"At 40-40 they go on just a blitz and we just never got a flow. They had everything to do with that.

"They were making shots, their defense gets better and we just had no answers," Matta said.

"They got going and we couldn't stop them," added OSU guard Jamar Butler. "They had more toughness than us in that second half and they wanted it more."

Taurean Green
Photo by Jim Davidson

Florida's second-half domination was fueled by an outstanding offensive effort by Florida guard Taurean Green. Green shredded the OSU defense with penetration to get easy layups. Green put up a game-high 24 points in a game that was supposed to be dominated by more high-profile baseline players.

"Ball screens. We were hedging on the ball screen but we weren't hedging hard like we were supposed to," said Butler.

"Green kept turning the corner on us and we couldn't help on him. Out high, they can shoot the ball so they were getting easy baskets," said Butler.

"That was the game right there," said Matta. "I think you learned a great lesson of how good Taurean Green is. He got inside and forced our rotations. Our guards are trying to sink and fill on Horford or Noah or Richardson and it really put us at a disadvantage."

When Green wasn't beating the OSU defense to the basket for layups, Florida's inside game was playing havoc with what there was of an inside presence for the Buckeyes. Forward Corey Brewer had his way both inside and out and ended the game with 18 points. Brewer had lots of help on the baseline as he and Joakim Noah and Al Horford ganged up on OSU freshman center Greg Oden to dominate the interior. Horford, Noah and Brewer combined for 36 points, 25 rebounds and six blocked shots. Horford's 11 rebounds was the game high. Florida outrebounded Ohio State by a whopping 43-25 count.

"He showed today that he's (Horford) one of the best big men in the country. I thought he was impressive as could be and really did a tremendous job. We prepared all week like he was going to play," said Matta.

The Gators were playing like the defending national champs they are, and the Buckeyes were playing like they didn't belong. Freshman guard Mike Conley scored 13 points and dished out a game-high seven assists, but there was not a whole lot else to for the Buckeyes to point to when the game was over.

Mike Conley
Photo by Jim Davidson

"I thought that Michael played well. He kept competing and made good decisions. I thought he was. I thought he did a nice job, didn't lose his composure and kept playing through," said Matta.

Florida led by as many as 29 points in the second half. The Gators enjoyed a 40-24 edge in scoring in the paint. Matta found little to be happy about in his team's play, but was especially unhappy about the way some of his younger players lost their composure in the game.

"Yeah, and we did it in the first half too," Matta responded when asked if his team lost it in the second half as Florida put them away. "They went on that run to get it to 30-20 and we weren't as strong. They took us out of a lot of things we were trying to do."

Oden was held to seven points and accounted for just four rebounds in 28 minutes of play and was just two-for-six from the field. Matta, however, was not critical of his big man.

"He can learn that he needs his right hand," said Matta when asked what Oden can learn from the game. "When you go against that size and you've only got one hand and it's not your dominant hand it gets exploited in game like today because they were physical with him and he didn't have the counters," Matta said.

The Buckeyes will now return to Columbus with their nose bloodied and a black eye. What Matta wants to see now is how his team reacts to the thumping.

"I told them this is reality. We got beat bad today," said Matta.

"It's obvious that there are teams out there across the country that are better than we are. If we sit there and say that we're not going to continue to get better, that will be the bad part. I look at this game and I as I told them this motivates me even more to get this team better.

"As I told the team, these guys are the champions, they're the champions until somebody takes it from them in April.

"For our team, I think this could be a great lesson. You see this all the time. Where do we go from here? There's obviously a lot of things we need to get better at. We are deficient in some areas and we've got to find ways to hide them, exploit them, that sort of thing against a team like this."

Butler said that the Buckeyes are not likely to forget their visit to Gainesville.

"Coming into the defending national champion's place and getting spanked like that is not fun," said Butler. "It's really going to motivate us in the future and we'll see them again."

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