Nick KrugIt’s hard to say if the Florida Gators got complacent after building a 15-point halftime lead or were just swallowed up by a more intense and passionate Kansas University men’s basketball team during the second half of Friday’s 71-65 victory at Allen Fieldhouse.
Whatever the case, color Florida’s Chris Walker surprised.
“I feel like (in) the first half, we had it,” said Walker, who finished with 12 points and five rebounds on 5-of-6 shooting. “But in the second half, the crowd got into it, they hit shots and the crowd kind of helped them out.”
Behind good ball movement, tough defense and some sloppy play from Kansas (6-1), the Gators responded to a slow start with a 14-0 run and built a 15-point lead by halftime. Florida coach Billy Donovan said he knew the game was far from finished at that point, but went to the locker room very pleased with the way his team had played.
“They were down 15 at half, they were at home, I knew they were gonna come out and really try to turn up the heat and we responded pretty well at first,” Donovan said. “We had our opportunities. We had our chances.”
Not willing to be outdone on their home floor, the Jayhawks answered the Gators’ first-half run with a 33-7 run of their own in the second half, sparked largely by a different mindset.
“They picked up their pressure and intensity and instead of attacking it as a team, I think we backed up,” Florida’s Jon Horford. “You have to credit them. They had a lot of fight, a lot of passion and they did a great job.”
The Gators (3-4) played just eight guys in this one and only six played more than 15 minutes. But Horford said that was not the problem.
“Fatigue is not an excuse,” he said. “We’re all in shape. We have enough.”
