Gators Keep Rolling in Rout of Texas A&M
On a Saturday when many of the top ranked teams were either beaten or nearly beaten, one team just looked plain nasty. That team was the Florida Gators at #3. While the #1 Arizona Wildcats were losing to the Cal Golden Bears 60-58 and the #2 Syracuse Orange had to go to overtime to beat the #17 Duke Blue Devils, the Gators led the Texas A&M Aggies 34-17 at the half. The rout continued in the second half as Florida got to 60 points before the Aggies got to 30.
Florida out-rebounded the Aggies 57-27. UF shot only 41% from the floor and only 20% from the three point line missing their first nine attempts and going only 5-25 for the game. But they held the Aggies to 25% from the floor and at one time held a 38 point lead. What would have happened had they been hot from the outside? Michael Frazier led Florida with 21 points but was only 3-11 from three. Dorian Finney-Smith was the only other Gator in double figures with 11 points. A&M’s leading scores were Kourtney Roberson and Jamal Jones with seven points each.
The Gators are 19-2 for the third time in school history. The first two Florida teams to go 19-2 were the 2006 and 2007 teams. Both went on to win the National Championship. The win extended the Gators home win streak to a school record 27 straight games. Patric Young led Florida with 14 rebounds and was only one point short of a double-double. Florida turns around on Tuesday when they host the Missouri Tigers.
The students at Cal Berkely got to storm the court after their Bears knocked off the #1 ranked Wildcats. Justin Cobbs hit the game winning step back jumper with .09 on the clock to hand the Wildcats their first loss of the season. The news gets worse for Arizona as they lost starting forward Brandon Ashley early in the game to a broken foot. The Wildcats are now 21-1 and 8-1 in Pac 12 play. Cal is now 15-7 and 6-3. This win could get them into the NCAA Tournament should they continue to play well down the stretch.
The Duke-Syracuse game was sent into overtime on a buzzer beating three point shot by Duke’s Andre Dawkins who had four of the Blue Devils 15 three point shots. But it was a couple of controversial calls that went the Orange’s way late that turned out to be the big difference. The first was an offensive foul called on Jabari Parker of Duke that not only could have tied the game had it gone the other way, but also fouled out the star freshman with about 2:00 left in regulation. The second was anon foul called on a Rodney Hood drive to the bucket in overtime that might have won the game for the Blue Devils with just a few seconds left.
Other notable upsets on Saturday included the #7 Michigan State Spartans losing 64-60 to the Georgetown Hoyas who came into the game on a five game losing streak and the #8 Oklahoma State Cowboys dropping a home game to the Baylor Bears 76-70. The Bears had also been sliding as of late losing six of their last eight.
In what may be considered an upset but perhaps shouldn’t be, the Texas Longhorns beat the #6 Kansas Jayhawks 81-69. Both teams came into the contest red hot, but what might be a bit surprising is how easily Texas handled Andrew Wiggins who went only 2-12 from the field.
