David Huertas Has Brutal Homecoming As Gators Hold Off Late Rebel Charge

Written by Ryan Collins, Gatorsfirst.com Staff Writer

The University of Florida Men’s Basketball team achieved what the football could not accomplish this year: beat Ole Miss at home.

UF led early by a score of 46-26, and possessed a halftime lead of 53-39, but the final score of 78-68 does not reflect the comeback attempt in the final minutes by Mississippi.

With a 1:23 left in the game, Ole Miss trailed by only six, 74-68. However, a David Huertas missed shot and a turnover, a Nick Calathes block, late free throws by Calathes, and Walter Hodge sealed the deal.

The fans surrounding me in the student section really laid the foundation for a dismal homecoming for David Huertas. Huertas won a national title with the University of Florida in 2006, and subsequently transferred to the University of Mississippi “due to problems with playing time.”  A few seats down from me, a fan brandished a sign proclaiming “Benedict Huertas.”

On Ole Miss’ first possession of the game, the student section was given a gift-wrapped taunting present as David airballed a three-point shot. A few minutes later Huertas was fouled on a three-point attempt, and preceded to miss two of the three shots amidst a cacophony of “airball” chants.

To be fair, Huertas did lead the late second half charge, made a few clutch three-pointers, and an amazing put-back to cut the lead to six.

On to the home team, this was a tremendous victory to lead off conference play. Against the physical interior defense of the Rebels, UF relied heavily on fast pace and three balls. It was very common to see eight or nine swing passes around the arc and then an open three-point shot.

Overall, the Gators were 11-29 from behind the arc. The up-tempo run-outs were fueled by Nick “wonderboy” Calathes’ precision passes and well executed frontcourt press.  

Defensively, there were some negative and positives for the Gators. Ole Miss won the rebounding battle, 38-21, with a shocking 15 offensive rebounds. Almost all of those offensive rebounds were immediate put-backs, and sometimes as many as three uncontested attempts.

UF played a fair amount of zone defense, but they still struggled to box out the Rebel bigs. However, despite this lack of physicality, the Gators did not get shoved out of the game due to a well run frontcourt pressure all game, amassing a total of 12 steals. Hodge and Calathes had four steals each, and Dan Werner chipped in with three. 

This team is certainly more reminiscent of the 2002-2004 squads of Anthony Roberson, David Lee, and Matt Walsh, with much less interior presence and a bombardment of three-pointers.

Alex Tyus only had nine points, and many of those came on fast breaks, as UF could not establish a post presence. Erving Walker connected on two early three-pointers, and provided plenty of aggressive defense in his 18 minutes. Kenny Kadji only had two points, but his alley-oop dunk eight minutes into the game absolutely brought the house down. 

Saturday’s victory puts the Gators at 14-2 overall, with 8-straight wins since the last loss to FSU on Pearl Harbor day. UF (1-0 in the SEC) next travels to Auburn, Alabama to face a Tiger squad (10-5) that lost its SEC opener at South Carolina, 68-56.

Three Tigers average around 13 points a game, and two of them are guards, so expect a fast-paced three-point-o-rama. Projected score: UF 69 Auburn 61. 

Side note: Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, and possibly Brandon Spikes(?) watched the first half of the game from the corner of the floor behind the Gators bench. However they had no formal introduction during the game or at halftime

Any thoughts?

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